The CBDC Revolt
A government launches a central bank digital currency with built-in spending controls. Citizens rebel when their money is programmed to expire and purchases are denied.
Your government has fully launched a central bank digital currency (CBDC), eliminating physical cash. The system includes "programmable money" features: stimulus payments that expire in 90 days, purchases blocked for sanctioned goods, and carbon-spending limits. Citizens discover that their money now has conditions. A massive backlash erupts.
You are the Governor of the Central Bank
The Situation Room
>Crypto exchanges see a 4,000% spike in trading volume as citizens desperately convert CBDC to Bitcoin and stablecoins.
>Small businesses refuse to accept the CBDC, reverting to barter and gold. A parallel gray economy is forming.
>Civil liberties groups file emergency lawsuits arguing programmable money violates fundamental property rights.
Internal Briefing Notes
• A CBDC gives the central bank real-time visibility into every transaction in the economy — unprecedented monetary surveillance.
• Programmable money can be coded to expire, restricting spending windows, or to block certain categories of purchases.
• Unlike bank deposits, CBDC is a direct liability of the central bank, meaning the government has ultimate control over every unit of currency.
Escalation Window
Reveal each phase to see how the situation deteriorates.
The public is rejecting your digital currency. The economy is fracturing between official and shadow systems. What do you do?
Choose your response. There are no good options.
Strip the CBDC back to basic digital cash. You calm the public but lose the policy tools that justified eliminating physical currency in the first place.
Ban all alternatives and require CBDC for tax payments and government services. Compliance will follow, but you've built a financial surveillance state.
Let citizens choose. The CBDC becomes irrelevant as everyone switches back to anonymous cash. The entire program — and its cost — is wasted.
Related Entities
Explore the institutions, countries, and actors involved in this scenario.
People's Republic of China
Single-party socialist state led by the Chinese Communist Party and one of the two central poles of global power. China combines party control, state planning capacity, export-industrial strength, technological ambition, and a vast domestic market, making its political decisions consequential for global trade, security, supply chains, and regional power balances.
United States
Federal presidential republic and the world's largest economy, with power divided among the presidency, Congress, the states, and the federal courts. U.S. politics is highly polarized, two-party dominated, and globally consequential because decisions made in Washington shape finance, trade, security alliances, technology regulation, and military power far beyond U.S. borders.
United Kingdom
Constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. Comprises England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Nigeria
sovereign state in West Africa
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