Digital euro.

People who were never on your ballot. Ursula von der Leyen was installed by council deal and ruled against by the EU's own Court for withholding her Pfizer texts. Christine Lagarde was found guilty of negligence in 2016 over a €403 million state payout to tycoon Bernard Tapie, received zero punishment, and now runs the ECB building the digital euro. Convicted upward, never voted in.

3 walls closing on those who stay by 2030. Wall 1, your identity: signed law forces all 27 EU states to offer a government digital ID wallet by 24 December 2026, your passport, license, diplomas and medical records in 1 state app. Wall 2, your money: the digital euro pilots in 2027, rolls out in 2029. Wall 3, your movements: the Entry/Exit System, live since October 2025, logs every border crossing by face and fingerprint.

The future of money is digital, programmable, and borderless. I predict blockchain, stablecoins, and digital payments rewire how value moves through the global economy. Cash and 3-day cross-border transfers give way to instant, programmable value, and the players are already in position: Visa and Mastercard settle in stablecoins, BlackRock sells Bitcoin in an ETF, and the ECB targets 2029 for the digital euro. I made the origin forecast on stage in 2008: the greedy masses go for crypto, the smart pick Bitcoin, the smartest back blockchain itself. I bought Bitcoin in March 2011 and cashed out in July 2025. The real question is no longer whether money goes digital. It is who writes the rules when it does. Watch the rule-writers, not the price charts. Digital money you do not control is a leash, not freedom.

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are national currencies issued by a central bank in programmable digital form: a digital euro or digital dollar the state itself runs, with rules written into the money. I predict governments keep pushing them while the debate turns fierce: convenience versus surveillance, privacy versus control. The receipts: China's digital yuan is live, the digital euro pilot starts in 2027 with rollout in 2029, and the US banned a retail digital dollar by executive order in January 2025. A programmable currency can settle payments instantly and also track, limit, or freeze every transaction you make. Programmable money is conditional money: conditional on your tax compliance, your political behavior, your carbon score. The technology is neutral. The rules written around it are anything but. I fear people, not technology. Watch the governance, not the code.

Birth registration is the first link in a chain. The UN wants every human on paper by 2030. Then on a screen. Agenda 2030, Target 16.9: legal identity for all, including birth registration, by 2030. The UN’s definition covers your identity from birth certificate to death certificate. The World Bank supports the effort. It helped over 60 countries provide digital IDs, benefiting 550 million people. Next link: money. In the Philippines, free bank accounts at ID registration centers created 8 million new accounts. In 2018, the World Economic Forum and partners launched a biometric digital travel ID prototype, with Canada and the Netherlands developing a pilot. Every EU state must offer a digital ID wallet by December 24, 2026. The digital euro pilot is planned for 2027. Birth certificate. Digital ID. Bank account. Digital payments. No secret bond needed. Every initiative is public and documented. For 800 million people without official ID, identification can open doors to banking and healthcare. In Vietnam, banks moved to delete 86 million unverified or dormant accounts under biometric identity rules. Technology can empower or control humanity. Being counted is not the danger. Who controls the count is. I fear people, not technology. Igor Beuker

Digital identities are secure, verifiable proof of who you are online, for people, organizations, and assets: a passport for the internet. I predict they become essential infrastructure as commerce, education, healthcare, and government move online, and the rollout is already dated: every EU state must offer the digital ID wallet in 2026, your papers, health data, and permits in 1 app. In an era of deepfakes and synthetic accounts, proving you are who you claim to be is no longer a feature. It is the foundation the entire digital economy stands on. My warning stays: digital ID plus digital euro is a control grid if the wrong people write the rules. Whoever owns the standard owns the flow. The technology can empower or control society. I picked a side. Fear sells. Imagination builds. Imagine a bright future, then create it.

By 2030 the wallet is mandatory in practice: no wallet, no government services, no bank account, no travel. Identity, money, movement: China's social credit state rebuilt with European branding, the switchboard in Brussels, not your parliament. Check it yourself, every law is public: the EU law database, the ECB's digital euro pages, the UN's Agenda 2030. Read them before they read you.

Under emergency powers the EU can suspend elections, freeze accounts and seize assets: your house, your pension fund, your savings. Why keep that on the table? To seize. Digital ID plus digital euro is the control grid: programmable money is conditional money, conditional on your tax compliance, your political behavior, your carbon score. The trend I predict. The mission I choose.

Every EU state must offer the digital ID wallet in 2026, your papers, health data and permits in 1 app. AI Act and e-Evidence in August 2026, Cyber Resilience in September 2026, 3 or more states copy the unrealized-gains tax by 2027, digital euro pilot in 2027, rollout in 2029. Everything is timed to land before 2030, and none of it was put to a citizen vote.

America's debt passed $40 trillion in August 2026, about 125% of its economy, adding over $2 trillion a year. EU governments owed another $17.6 trillion in March 2026. Money goes digital either way: 130-plus countries work on state digital money, CBDCs. Europe builds the digital euro, the cage I called on my EU Digital Cage card. America chose the opposite: private digital dollars.