We are at a turning point in history with regard to the way we transact to purchase goods and services. We have been made familiar with electronic transactions whereby payments can be made by presenting your card or phone app to a reader or making purchases online by filling in card details which can then be saved for future use. As time has gone by our banks have developed the ability to program these electronic transactions so that for instance they may decide for your safety that you may not spend more than £100 online or more commonly limit your cash access to say £400. The next step is to create a digital pound, a little like bitcoin et al except instead of being fully secured for an individuals access, government will hold your funds with assurances from them that your funds are safe with them. In doing so the next tiny step towards the full blown chinese style social credit system has been created. Linked to the "carbon footprint" levers of control which incidentally is a term coined by the oil industry, it opens up the future possibility of declining purchase where people have exceeded their carbon allowance. The US have already passed enabling legislature for a digital dollar and the UK will be looking to follow suit. It will be sold in a very benign way but the control possibilities will become limitless. But knowledge is power and the more people that are aware of how the digital pound could be misused the better.