Richard Werner, a German banking economist, was selected as a top 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow (GLT) by the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2003. He recently warned against central bank digital currency (CBDC) that will initially be accessed with a phone, but ultimately, the goal is to implant a rice-size chip under the skin of users. He said that people will be lured into the system with universal basic income (UBI). He recommended that banks should be set up locally and that it could delay or even prevent the introduction of CBDCs.

The Bank for International Settlements published a report called the Blueprint for the Future Monetary System that proposes that a CBDC will serve as the new reserve currency and calls for the confiscation of all physical property. Every real-world item will be assigned its own unique digital token that will contain rules on how each item may or may not be used so that each person can be controlled directly by the central bank.