This doesn't change anything. It's actually even more scary that governments can pull up laws that quickly that are restraining liberties this much so quickly. I saw it in my country, which I hopefully didn't live in at the time: in less than half a year millions of citizens were stripped of basic liberties such as movement. And despite decades of anti-racism propaganda, it took less than a pair of months to create a state-enforced cast of paria with less rights than others (we're speaking of access to businesses, to healthcare, etc.) And they would have no legal way of exiting the country except by doing it illegally or by forging documentation.
Most Western states are a few bills away of turning full China. They now it, and will surf on any perceived or real crisis to get to that point somedays. In the meantime, they do it step by step.
This is all-or-nothing security fallacy. Having physical cash makes such transition harder for the country, because the dissidents can stay anonymous easier.
Most Western states are a few bills away of turning full China. They now it, and will surf on any perceived or real crisis to get to that point somedays. In the meantime, they do it step by step.