T day

It’s a normal Monday morning but across the world, ATMs are reporting errors and financial and news websites are unreachable. Banks report problems with their IT systems which block web access and cash withdrawals. The US and UK government blame Iran and China for a coordinated cyber-attack which also freezes the crypto currency market. Events start to move at a fast pace.

T+24 hours

In the UK and Europe, a three-day bank holiday is announced to protect the financial system. Although back online, cash withdrawals from ATMs are limited and credit cards are frozen. Customers rush to purchase food and goods using the cash they have available.

T+72 hours

The bank holiday is extended to fourteen days to “flatten the curve” and allow the UK government to develop a rescue plan. Prices start to inflate and the UK sterling exchange value fluctuates wildly. Cash is now in short supply. Shops empty of items, many simply close their doors. For those garages still open for business the price of petrol reaches £3/litre. Information on worldwide events is confused and often contradictory. The cyber event narrative seems to be the most likely explanation and is widely accepted by the public.

T+96 hours

Mobile phone networks, cable TV and broadband internet access fails. The government blames an intensified cyber attack from Russia/Iran/China/North Korea which is affecting Internet providers and satellite systems. The UK public loses access to all online bank accounts for a second time. Citizens revert back to the analogue radio for security announcements.

T+120 hours

A state of national emergency is declared in the UK and other countries worldwide in response to the continuing rash of cyber-attacks which the government blames for the chaos in the financial markets as well as the Middle East conflict driving the price of oil to £200/barrel.

In the UK a coalition government of national unity is formed from all the major political parties. A temporary travel lockdown and curfew is announced and police, backed up by army personnel carriers, patrol major metropolitan centres.

Late on Friday night, after approval from the Bank of England, UK banks seize all customer deposits and securities to refinance the system. Over the weekend, the “bail in” as it’s described in the media, is immediately challenged in the courts with an emergency class action lawsuit but is found to be entirely legal. The UK bank insurance scheme (FSCS) collapses due to lack of funds and is suspended. The same situation plays out in Europe and the US. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) fails to cover user deposits.

Under the emergency conditions in both the UK and American local and mid-term elections are deferred and all major sports events and programmes are cancelled.

T+168 hours

Over the next few days, data and mobile networks are slowly brought back online. ATM’s activate but withdrawals are limited to £250 a day. Long queues form at the machines which are quickly drained of cash. Debit and credit cards are still frozen and there is no access to online banking. High street branches remain closed.

June / July

The UK government announces a recovery plan that closely mirrors an approach used by the EU and the USA. The nominal value of the bank deposits will be reflected in a new digital wallet held by the Bank of England and managed through the remaining UK G-SIBs banks. As part of the UN’s Agenda 2030, plans are already well advanced for such an eventuality and the launch date for the digital wallet is set for six months time. Through approved media channels, the public is told that the Bank of England is taking responsibility for lost customer deposits. The move is widely supported by the populace who remain shocked by the loss of access to bank deposits.

After the announcement of widespread bankruptcies in the financial sector, the UK government announces that access to securities held by brokerages and other wealth stores such as bullion banks will remain frozen until legal ownership can be determined.

In an attempt to deter fraud and to ensure an orderly implementation, all UK citizens are required to register for a biometric digital ID. Fortunately, the UK government has been working towards a digital identity system for a number of years based on the biometric passport database.

Social unrest takes hold due to food shortages in certain regions. In the UK, local retailers targeted by shoplifting gangs are forced to close. Larger retailers employ site security teams to keep their doors open. It is hinted that the digital ID may form the basis of a food rationing system, should supply lines continue to be disrupted.

The retail economy continues to run using the devalued currency as cash, precious metal coinage and a crude barter system.

All UK borders are closed. The Royal Navy is tasked to patrol the channel and intercept any vessel with orders to board if ignored. Illegal immigration ceases overnight. The Army openly patrols city centres where there are clashes between migrant groups and local residents. An amnesty for all illegal migrants is announced to operate alongside the roll-out of the biometric digital ID.

In order to restore public order, the new digital ID (DiD) becomes mandatory to enter public buildings, large retail spaces and public transport. Sites introduce biometric scanning to enforce the measure. CCTV systems in urban areas are upgraded to support facial recognition. There is some push back from civil rights groups but the general public is supportive of the measure.

Schools, pubs and restaurants remain closed.

A general travel lockdown is enforced and a UN force is invited into most western nations to support local police. Since fuel is almost impossible to purchase, only essential car journeys are being made. Although there are some brownouts, the UK energy grid and internet remain stable.

Global Events.

The situation in Europe is equally chaotic. National armed forces in Germany and France are ordered onto the street to maintain order.

In the USA, urban unrest fuelled by gun crime is uncontrollable. After the National Guard is overrun in Indianapolis and Chicago, martial law is declared and the federal government calls in a UN peacekeeping force backed by the US military. Congress repeals the 2nd Amendment and an immediate confiscation of assault rifles is ordered. Florida and Texas rescind the order and announce their intention to secede from the Union. Federal authority starts to break down and policy enforcement moves back to the state and metropolitan level.

August

Registration for the digital ID exceeds 80% of the UK population over 16 years old.

A loan repayment holiday of 12 months is announced on all debt obligations including mortgages, car loans, business loans and broadband data plans. Energy bills are frozen until March the following year.

September

The new digital currency BritCoin (bC) is launched. All wallets are seeded with 1000bC and the major UK banks reopen for online users only. The new currency is digital only and has no representative coinage.

All frozen bank accounts up to a value of £110,000 can be automatically converted to the new ‘currency’ at a ‘one for one’ rate for the next twelve months, dropping to ‘one for two’ after that. No cash deposits are allowed. All equities, pensions and deposits over $110,000 remain frozen and are subject to a second government review to determine legal ownership after insolvency.

Access to the digital wallet is through a mobile phone app protected by biometric security. A payment card system is announced for later in the year but will only be valid for a fixed period as customers transition across and 5G is extended to all areas of the UK. The government announces a free smartphone and subsidised data plan programme for all pension recipients and early adopters of the digital ID.

All government and local taxes must be paid using BritCoin. Stirling cash is still technically legal tender until January but its purchasing power is almost zero. Major retailers only accept the new digital currency. A vibrant black market ‘barter’ system based on goods, services and precious metals operates as a shadow economy.

October

The UK Central Committee announces a Universal Basic Income (UBI) scheme to be launched in the new year. The scheme will place 400bC into each digital wallet every month without means testing. This will replace all social security payments and other government allowances. Income tax is abolished and replaced with a fixed charge on every digital payment. The policy is hugely popular and the adoption of the digital wallet starts to approach 90% of the population.

A BritCoin credit facility is opened to businesses that meet ESG standards.

The driving licence and passport information is merged into the digital ID in order to simplify the system.

The government is forced to scale back the NHS to basic primary care. As a temporary measure, care facilities are handed over to the private sector funded through personal insurance schemes and selected government grants. A general review of the NHS is initiated.

Social order is slowly restored as BritCoin (bC) starts to circulate. Fuel for cars and heating becomes available although the regional travel ban remains.

November

The UK economy falls into a recession as GDP plummets by 40%.

Schools reopen although colleges and university campuses remain closed. Some leisure and sports venues reopen subject to operating biometric security based on the national ID system.

Media is tightly controlled to prevent ‘mis-information’ circulating. Independent media stations are forcibly closed down and some persistent dissenters either jailed or de-banked. Challenges are made in the courts but they are found to be legal under the provisions of the Online Safety Act 2023 which allows financial penalties for any platform or individual failing to remove information the UK government deems to be dangerous. The courts rule that the definition of ‘dangerous’ in this context is anything that challenges government policy.

In order to crack down on money laundering, criminal activity and information that undermines national security the government starts a trial scheme to force all Internet providers to require a biometric ID before allowing access to data traffic. Although unpopular, the proposal is accepted as a necessary restriction during the emergency period.

Information on traffic offences and other convictions is merged into the digital ID to align it with the UN and EU standards.

December

Fuel for vehicles becomes available at a fixed price and the travel ban is lifted for the Christmas holiday. The number of EV charging stations is greatly increased to alleviate the fuel shortage. Charging is subsidised through the BritCoin system making EVs highly desirable after a depressed period of sales. To reduce the increasing number of EV car thefts, a remote ‘kill-switch’ is made mandatory in all new vehicles.

The general situation is helped by a mild winter in the UK although reports for central and Eastern Europe suggest severe hardships in the more remote parts of the EU.

People are relieved that the year is over and face the next twelve months with the hope that it will bring a degree of stability and prosperity.

Greg and Britney’s Story:

North London,

UK

Early Summer

Greg noticed it when he checked the previous night’s sports results - the internet was down or at least he had difficulty accessing the cable news station and social media websites. The problem was not completely unexpected. When an excavator went through a cable at the end of the road, it took two days to get the services reconnected and the whole event seriously messed up Greg’s work schedule. However this was different, some sites were up and others down, so it wasn’t the cable. Maybe it was a wireless glitch. He thought of turning on the radio, only to realise he didn’t own one.

After making breakfast and waking up Britney he checked with their immediate neighbours, John and Stella to see if they had the same issue. The information he gained was concerning. Being a member of an older generation, John had a couple of FM radios stored in his shed and appeared to be fully up to date with events. Apparently, a cyber-attack had disrupted a number of key services and people were being urged to remain at home until normality returned. According to the government announcements, all schools, colleges and major travel hubs were temporally closed. Thanking them for the loan of a spare radio, Greg returned home to share the news.

The immediate period after the crash was surreal. At first it was just a disruption to the normal routine but after two days it was clear something had changed. Lack of information was the worst aspect. Nobody knew what was going on; it was just the usual references to continued cyber-attacks.

Greg and Britney stayed at home, taking stock of what was in the house, talking to neighbours and expecting things to return to normal. People were strangely calm, like events were taking place on an extended holiday, so the announcement on Friday that a State of Emergency had been declared came as a bit of a shock. It was quickly followed by a banking announcement which was promoted as a plan to protect personal savings while the cyber-attack was ongoing. This was the first time Greg and Britney had heard the term ‘bail-in’ but the idea that the banks could simply take the contents in your account seemed unlikely. They just assumed they had misunderstood the details of the plan and it wasn’t like they had any savings to be concerned about.

Things calmed down a bit when the ATMs came back on line allowing limited cash withdrawals. Greg walked down to the local cash machine just as the store opened. He joined the queue and managed to withdraw the maximum amount which was fortunate because, after years of tapping-out, the couple had little cash in the house. The ATM wasn’t fully loaded and there was a bit of a scuffle as the last of the notes ran out. Greg took the cash, drove to the supermarket and bought what was left on the shelves, returning with a strange selection of non-perishable goods, mainly tins of fish, beans and pasta. Driving back past the queues at the petrol station, Greg was thankful that he hadn’t yet traded in the EV.

The next few weeks were weird. Like most people, the couple just expected things to return to normal, but they didn’t. Fortunately, power and heating remained unaffected so the days were spent listening to the TV and radio and picking up local information from social media. Britney took stock of the food in the house and reckoned they were fine for a week or so, living on tinned food combined with either pasta or rice while running down the contents of the freezer.

In a positive way the community was drawn together during that period. It was as if the entire world had shrunk down to the immediate neighbourhood. The first weeks of the crash were spent walking between houses, sharing coffee and tea, trying to work out what was going on. The fine weather helped to ease people’s anxieties. Britney went back to helping out at the child care hub although nobody knew if the salary would be forthcoming. The centre also served as a useful location for swapping goods, services and information. Nobody was commuting to work due to the travel ban which was being enforced by security checkpoints located on major junctions manned by army reservists.

Greg worked from home when he could get a stable internet connection as well as operating an impromptu UBER service running errands for neighbours in the EV. Britney discovered that one of the neighbours kept chickens and on one occasion swapped a ride for six eggs which served as Greg’s first introduction to the emerging barter system.

The main focus of that early period was engaging with social media and local gossip to discover the location of functioning ATM’s, shops that still held stock and pop-up farmer’s markets. As the time went on without any signs of normality returning, Greg made contact with his father, Martin, who owned a cottage in Norfolk to check on his wellbeing. He seemed to be doing alright with plenty of local produce, a tight local community but little in the way of formal support services.

It was clear from media bulletins that the government was working hard to get the system back up and running after the cyber-attacks. Announcements assured the population that access to accounts would be restored shortly but it would be with a new type of money. Nobody really cared that much what the currency was called - they just needed something to trade for a reliable supply of food and fuel for the cars.

The summer harvest started to appear in the local markets which eased the food situation. Up to now exchange was occurring in an ad hoc barter system. The old cash notes were still being used but Greg noted that older coinage was also in demand. It turned out that much of the pre-decimal coins were made of silver and therefore had real tradable value. It was strange to see coins carrying the heads of long dead monarchs being used in preference to the modern one-pound coin. People also broke down jewellery items to use in barter. At the farmer’s market Britney saw the links from heavy gold chains previously beloved by rappers and soccer stars being used as well as gold sovereigns on very rare occasions. Although all of this activity had a certain novelty, all that everybody really wanted was the banking system restored so they could tap-out.

A government announcement explained that to gain access to your restored bank account, you’d require a digital ID (DiD) to establish ownership and reduce instances of fraud. It was the first sign that things were getting back to normal and everyone in the couple’s new social circle took it as a sign that stability was returning. You could apply online and if you already had a valid passport the process was pretty straightforward. The couple quickly went through the application procedure, downloaded the you.gov DiD app and waited.

A week later the application was approved and a large green checkmark appeared on the app along with a QR code and a token file that could be passed to third parties should they request it. Once the DiD became active it became easier to access public buildings and move through the security checkpoints although it was frustrating that a launch date for the associated digital wallet was still months away. Procuring food and other essentials was still dependent on bartering, exchanging items of value (mainly gold and silver) and sterling paper notes although prices were now massively inflated. A single loaf of bread might cost £30 or £50 The normal legal tender coinage was completely valueless. Greg maintained a store of £1 coins that he used to operate legacy slot devices but other than that they had only scrap value.

Just as things began to normalise, the fragility of Greg and Britney’s position was made clear.

Late one evening, a group of men wearing masks visited each house in the street searching for food, money and goods to barter. They took some of Britney’s last remaining pieces of jewellery, all the re-sellable food along with most of the currency recently withdrawn from the ATM. It was like a well organised military operation, each group passing the stolen goods into a van before moving onto the next house. Non-cooperation was met with a threat of violence although nobody was actually injured.

Britney was really scared and upset. Although she had heard of similar occurrences in other areas of the city she always thought of the local neighbourhood as fairly sheltered. That illusion was now shattered and it was clear they needed to relocate to a safer location. The move was planned as a temporary measure, once things stabilised they would return to the house and the old routine.

That weekend, the couple packed everything of value into the EV, locked up, passed a spare set of house keys to John and Stella and headed to Norfolk.

Greg and Britney anticipated some issues on the journey but the ban on all non-essential movement meant the roads were largely deserted. The London ring-road was empty with no delays except for a checkpoint on the entry slip road. At the barrier the digital IDs were scanned, the reason for the journey logged and after a halfhearted search of the vehicle, the EV with its two passengers and boxes of clothes and goods were waved through.

Late Summer.

The Village,

Norfolk: UK

On arrival, Greg’s father, Martin, was relieved to see them both and welcomed them into the house. His cottage, which was really an old farmhouse with numerous spare rooms and an outhouse, was located on the edge of a small village with expansive farmland to the rear. To the front and across the lane, a large oak tree provided shade in the summer and a refuge for small birds and squirrels. Over tea, Martin told them that his grandfather had planted the oak from an acorn but Britney thought that seemed unlikely as it must have been hundreds of years old. Just before the crash, Martin was in the process of putting the cottage on the market with a view to moving to the coast but events put a halt to that plan. The couple immediately relaxed into the new surroundings as the countryside seemed unaffected by events.

Britney spent the first week just sorting out the new living arrangements while Greg continued his work online. The countryside folk were better adapted to the new situation than those in the town. Martin ran an old Land Rover which always seemed to have a supply of diesel and farm food was always available which made a big change from eating tinned fish and pasta. On the second night of the stay, they cooked a free-range chicken and drank cider until Greg fell asleep on the sofa.

The local community seemed to fall effortlessly into a group-assist and share mode. Greg helped out running errands for the villagers using the Land Rover while the EV was left parked next to the outhouse with twenty miles of charge left in the dash.

Later that same week Greg made contact with Gary and Steve, who had a charger hooked up to solar panels and a battery store. They were running a small barter operation charging up EVs in exchange for food and other necessities. The brothers became the first port of call for anything in short supply and if they didn’t have it, they probably knew somebody who did. The couple made more new friends in the first month than they did living in the town for ten years.

Britney started an informal child care facility in the cottage outhouse which slowly morphed into a general holding place for kids while the schools remained closed. Martin turned out to be a natural teacher and entertainer and all the kids loved him. Everything ran on a sort of trust and favour system. Children were often dropped off at the cottage along with a bag of onions. Other than food, pharmaceuticals and medicines had real barter value during this time.

Greg had some concerns about how they were going to maintain the London house but in August the loan repayment holiday was announced which solved the immediate problem. John and Stella reported that things had quietened down in the city although there was still the occasional report of a shop being looted. Greg took the EV back to London just to check things out, taking some farm produce for John and Stella and bringing back tools, clothes and personal items that wouldn’t fit into the EV during the initial journey. The trip was uneventful with few cars on the road, although the check points seemed to be more numerous and better organised. Greg thought that moving around without a DiD at this stage would have been difficult.

Early Autumn

Things started to settle down as Autumn arrived. Plans were announced to allow full access to bank accounts through the new digital money scheme. The process was fairly seamless and the couple were reunited with a bank account seeded with 1000 units of a new bC currency. A mobile app allowed payments to be made at shops that had transferred over to the new system. All online sites already accepted the new money. It was odd to be using a currency that had no equivalent coinage but it worked surprising well.

In September the schools reopened. Britney still ran the informal nursery although the older ones drifted back into the system. There was a lot of talk about the Universal Basic Income that was going to be launched in the new year. It was generally accepted as a good idea and something that would get the economy moving again, although the older villagers believed it was just “money for nothing”. The couple talked about moving back to London but were enjoying life at the cottage and so decided to put off any decision until the new year.

What ever they circumstances they all all agreed things would get better when things returned to normal.

As the technocratic world slowly emerges from the cyber crisis it carries with it a whole new set of terms and abbreviations. Listed below are some of the more common references found in the text.

3RYDE

A community ride system, introduced in T+3 through the Public Transport Freedom Act, that centralised all ride sharing and taxi services into a single scheme. The main feature of the service was the close integration with the Digital ID Loyalty Score system. Costs for 3RYDE are heavily subsidised but require an appropriate DILS score before a booking is accepted. The scheme was modelled on earlier trial services such as UBER and LYFT.

ABP

Anomalous Behaviour Patterns are events or activities that deviate significantly from established norms. Originally introduced to monitor health indicators, this deep learning technique was eventually applied to the full personal data set as an aid to maintaining social order. A large proportion of the processing power of the giga-centres was reserved to processing the dataset required to identify ABP outliers

Asset Assessor

An asset assessor assigned values to items pledged to the GAR. As well as establishing collateral worth, an asset assessor also established legal ownership and safe storage. Although a large amount of this work was handled through an AI toolset it often involved site visits and visual inspection.

bC

BritCoin - the digital currency that replaced UK Stirling after the cyber event. Originally offered as a simple one for one replacement, it operates as a true cashless credit system. The two main features of Brit Coin are that the central account is linked directly to a unique Digital ID and that all transactions are programmable.

Beneficial Owner

A beneficial owner is a freeperson who controls or receives the benefits from an asset without ever holding legal ownership. After T+5 all assets listed on the GAR are registered to beneficial owners. The right of legal ownership held by a freeperson rather than a corporation is abolished alongside the concept of private property.

NB. Not entirely fictional.

Carbon Credit Exchange

The Carbon Credit Exchange allowed freepersons to swap surplus carbon credits for utility items. During the initial rollout, exchange was limited to bC with a bonus of an improved DILS score. Freepersons buying carbon credits could set them against extended foreign travel, a better-quality protein diet or a higher range EV’s. By balancing out the carbon budget across all social groups, the targets of Net Zero could be met with impacting the personal aspirations of the minority.

CCH

Community Care Hubs are centres for primary health care that replaced traditional surgeries and local hospitals under the National Health Transformation Act. Specialising in monitoring, preventive care through vaccination and also offering MAID services for the elderly (55+) and infirm, they also act as a coordination centre for virtual wards.

Central Committee

The Central Committee was formed as a political coalition of groups in response to the challenges created by the financial collapse. It provided the leadership required to ensure social stability and the re-emergence of economic prosperity. After the success of democratic zone elections, the Central Committee continued to maintain tight fiscal control of the economy though AI models while devolving the responsibility of Net Zero policies to the District Zones. Within the Central Committee, strategic decisions are made by scientific experts rather than politicians looking for short term.

CS

Community Spaces are self-contained areas within metropolitan centres that were constructed around Low Traffic Areas (LTA) and 15 min Neighbourhoods, early examples of urban planning schemes which allowed residents to access key services within a short walk or bike ride from their homes. Originally a voluntary arrangement, tighter restrictions were imposed after the cyber event to prevent social disorder. Movement between Community Spaces was eventually linked to an appropriate DILS score during the pandemic events of T+4. After T+5 Community Spaces were slowly phased out in favour of the more ambitious Social Space initiative.

DiD

Each freeperson is identified by a Digital Identity which is fashioned from a combination of biometric markers. The DiD is assigned for life and unlike other personal labels (name, gender, social and occupational markers) it cannot be updated. As well as an identification role, the DiD represents the individual within a tokenised economy acting as the key to the users’ digital bank account and other tokenised assets. After T+1 all births in the UK zones resulted in the automatic issuance of a DiD. The revoking of a DiD results in the status of NULL for that freeperson.

DiDe

The Digital Identity Embedded programme allowed an individual to carry their DiD identity as an embedded chip. The device, which used RFID wireless technology, was no bigger than a grain of rice and was placed into the webbing between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand. The original version was capable of providing an authentication signal to any active listening station within a 10m range. The DiDe chip completely removed the requirement for a smartphone app to be active for identification requests although the more advanced features still relied on a 5G service accessed through a mobile. First Introduced in T+2 its convenience resulted in rapid adoption and by T+5 it was estimated that 98% of all freepersons carried the DiDe device. It was eventually superseded by DiDe NG during the period T+5.

DiDe NG

The Digital Identity Embedded Next Generation chip was first introduced at the start of T+5. Its enhanced capabilities included the ability to function completely independently of a mobile device using new features provided by the 6G rollout. When supplemented with facial recognition it became possible to track the movements of individuals in real-time.

DILS

The Digital ID Loyalty Score system was first introduced in T+2 as an extension of the DiD mobile app to encourage vaccine uptake and improve general health outcomes. It acted as a simple credit system; points were awarded for approved activities and these allowed fast track access to treatment plans and health awareness schemes. The initial scheme proved hugely popular and it soon extended into other areas such as retail purchases and Net Zero compliance. At the same time DILS credit deductions were applied for non-compliance and the system evolved into a behaviour modification system, replacing the indirect taxation model which was being phased out during the same period. By T+5 an appropriate DILS score was essential to maintain freeperson status and be considered as an active member of the community.

DZ UKxx

The UK District Zones were introduced in T+3 to support a reconstructed electoral system that replaced the old constituency model which had become unworkable due to population movements. Each zone acted as a semi-autonomous area, voting on issues relevant to that zone through a system of proportional representation. Each District was arranged with a central metropolitan area surrounded by a rural hinterland that supplied food, goods and services which created a self-serving economic unit. By T+5 the district had superseded the nation state as the primary source of personal sovereignty and identity for freepersons under the age of 20.

FreePerson

A freeperson is the official status of any individual with an active DiD token and qualifying DILS score. Everybody is born a freeperson.

Giga-centres

A giga-centre is a hyper-scaled computer datacentre. Unlike previous datacentres, which were optimised to run smaller independent workloads, the giga-centres were designed to work as one massive AI supercomputer, utilising many hundreds of thousands of customised processors. A typical giga-centre built during the T+3 period covered approximately 400 acres with even larger units planned for T+5. Locations were chosen in areas that could provide substantial amounts of water for cooling as well as access to electrical power, although all giga-centres built during phase two included modular reactors as a primary power source. As well as maintaining the General Asset Register and the Carbon Credit Exchange large amount of processing was dedicated to searching for Anomalous Behaviour Patterns based on data returned from IoT interfaces, smart devices, health monitors and security cameras.

GAR

The General Asset Register first emerged during T+2 when data from the DVLA database and Housing Registration scheme was finally integrated with the DiD database to operate as a fully tokenised blockchain. From that point it rapidly expanded to include all assets beneficially owned by residents of UK District Zones. The GAR forms one of the central pillars of the technocratic system, acting as the primary source of collateralised assets and the basis of a taxation mechanism. Maintaining the GAR is the primary role of the of the giga-centres.

GRL

The Global Resource Ledger is the top-level tokenised asset register operated and maintained by the UN. It takes input from regional lists such as the GAR to maintain a tokenised database of all global assets. It is the final manifestation of the Everything List.

G-SIBs

Global Systemically Important Banks are financial institutions whose failure will result in a global financial crisis.

NB. Not entirely fictional.

Health Supporter

A position within the health service that focused on active monitoring using wearables, vaccine programmes and preventive care rather than a more traditional nursing role.

ICFT

The Individual Carbon Footprint Tracker was introduced in T+2 to allow individuals manage their carbon consumption on a daily basis using a token system similar to, but separate from, DILS. At the start of each accounting period (April - March) each freeperson was allocated a fixed number of Carbon Credits to align with UN Net Zero objectives. From that point, lifestyle choices either increased or decreased the number of credits. Once the scheme was fully established freepersons could swap between Carbon Credits and bC on the Carbon Credit Exchange.

MAID

Medical Assistance in Dying allowed eligible freepersons with serious, incurable illnesses or disabilities to receive assistance from health supporters to end their lives. The programme was based on the successful trail that became legal in Canada in 2016.

NB. Not entirely fictional.

NULL

Any freeperson whose DiD is marked as inactive becomes NULL. This action automatically occurs on a registered death and through the action of smart contracts on the GAR, has the immediate effect of transferring beneficial rights. In contrast, a living individual marked as NULL places them outside all social and economic activity and is an ultimate sanction in a technocratic world.

Pledging

During T+3 a system was introduced that allowed a freeperson to tokenise any personal asset over a fixed value and place it on the General Asset Register. Although not given a formal term the process was commonly referred to as pledging. A pledged item provided an immediate release of capital, proportional to the item while increasing the collateral base for the general economy. Although voluntary at first it expanded into a method for general asset confiscation by T+5.

Profile Voting

Profile voting is the action of determining the wishes of the electorate through the collective digital profile. By testing policies against large scale simulations of voting patterns determined using AI models it’s possible to run a referendum without calling for a physical vote. A trial during the District Elections proved profile voting to be 98% accurate when compared with a balloted outcome. The technique was adopted for all future district policy decisions after T+4, finally ending the arcane practice of the personal vote. Profile voting represents the pinnacle of the democratic processes and is supported by the UN as the future model for global suffrage.

Puff Team

A term that found common use to describe the rollout of the MMR vaccine during the T+4 pandemic alert. It refers to the use of a nasal inhalant as a deliver mechanism in contrast to an injection or ‘jab’.

SEC

The State Education Certificate replaced all previous secondary educational standards during T+2 as a result of the educational review. The syllabus is largely AI driven and focuses on practical science, sustainability and ecological issues as well as social responsibly. The humanities are largely abandoned in this new approach. A SEC is desirable for any person applying for work after T+4 and is mandatory for any student planning for a higher education qualification. A SEC can only be awarded through approved channels which closed off all home-schooling options.

SS

Introduced in T+4, Social Spaces are an urban planning initiative that fully embraces all the goals and objectives of UN Agenda 2030. Unlike Community Spaces, these are “built for purpose” settlements, incorporating transport, security, work, health and leisure in an integrated manner. Once complete, each Social Space is planned to accommodate around 20,000 freepersons. Entry is tightly controlled through a personal DILS score which is subject to a periodic review. Family groups are encouraged, requiring older residents (55+) to relocate to Community Care Hubs offsite. Social Spaces are the model for all urban development planned for the future.

Vagabond

Any freeperson in violation of a statute or order can have the status of their DiD downgraded to Vagabond. This has the effect of denying access to official buildings, 3RYDE services and halting all bC transactions. It also raises the security level on DiD monitoring devices.

Virtual Ward

A home care system that employed a range of active monitoring devices to treat and control a range of health conditions Data from each virtual ward would be triaged though an AI system to create a care plan managed by a Community Care Hub and associated Health Supporters.

In a world of tokenised serfdom, personal freedom, private ownership and relationship between authority and the individual are reset to a new normal. These changes are the antithesis to a life determined by free will and would be rightly rejected by any right-thinking individual.

So how could such a fundamental change be brought about?

How could an entire populace be corralled into digital subjection against their wishes and best interest?

This series of posts speculates around the events that will take us from where we are now to where our overlords would like us to be.

Each long format post takes a portion of a timeline over five years of an economic collapse and translates it into events that affect an average couple living in the UK. The idea is to show how asset tokenisation can so easily be assimilated into everyday life without public pushback.

Because in the end, for the reset to be succesul we must demand our own enslavement.

T minus six months

Timeline:

January

It’s late winter in southern England. The weather is cold and overcast. As they enter a new year, most people are adopting an optimistic mood but across the world, tensions are rising and economies are fracturing.

The pressure on the US economy is increasing. The federal government posts a $2 trillion budget deficit, a 25% jump from the prior year, although the mainstream media still maintains that the global economy is strong. The US national debt stands at $40 trillion, increasing at the rate of $1 trillion every two months. With current lending rates, the cost of servicing the national debt now exceeds the defence budget.

The situation is the same in all the western economies, many of which have national debts larger than their annual GDP. Japan’s situation is even worse. The amount of debt it has accumulated is now over twice the size of its annual economic output and there is huge pressure on the bond market.

Behind the scenes the world’s central banks recognise that the majority of regional banks are illiquid (don’t have any money) and insolvent (the reserves mainly held as sovereign bonds that have lost 45% of the value). If only 5% of depositors turned up on the same day asking to close their accounts they would run out of funds. An extended period of financial stability and low interest rates is essential to the maintenance of the global economy.

United States federal fund reserves, the main source of capital for short term bonds, is now drained of the capital accrued during the emergency liquidity injection in 2020. In China a number of major property developers are forced into liquidation. Major bond owners such as HSBC and UBS find themselves holding $300 billion of worthless paper.

As an indication of the problems ahead, a long-term US bond auction in late January finds few takers. The Federal Reserve has to step in as a buyer of last resort. Bond yields rise across the board placing even more pressure on bank reserves. Institutional investors start to move capital out of stocks and into hard assets such as land, real estate and precious metals. Long established owners of banking and tech stocks quietly sell off a proportion of equity while it still holds nominal value. In contrast, retail investors continue to move capital into the NASDAQ and Dow Jones index chasing the gains into the new year as stock prices rise on the expectation of interest rate cuts.

The stress on the market is reflected in the unprecedented rises in the value of gold, silver and other commodities which the media attribute to the action of speculators.

In the U.S. there is increasing social unrest in urban areas due to rising prices and concerns about immigration.

February

War escalates in Europe and the Middle East creating fractures in the supply chain. Tensions rise in the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf leading to a spike in the oil price. Lastly, a ‘false flag’ terror event occurs in both the USA and the UK implicating Iran. A rise in the price of oil leads to increased prices in the shops.

Social unrest continues in Europe in opposition to immigration and economic stagnation.

Governments blame unexpected world events for economic uncertainty while a poor harvest in the Southern Hemisphere caused by Climate Change causes a rise in food prices. All Western news media follow the same storyline and agenda. Inflation moves up again, placing pressure on the bond market. Central Banks worldwide continue to convert worthless paper assets into gold while trying to suppress the price on the markets. However, behind the scenes the COMEX is quietly drained of unallocated supplies. Markets show huge amounts of volatility as paper traders try and maintain control over the price of monetary metals.

The public are unaware but it’s only a question of time before the first bank closes its doors.

March

The last of the stimulus that was pumped into the economy during 2020 dries up. The global Ponzi scheme finally runs out of liquidity.

The situation is worsened by China and Japan starting to dump US treasuries onto the global market forcing yields higher and the values of bonds lower. Banks have trouble covering large withdrawals as the value of their capital reserves falls by another 10%.

The US Federal Reserve holds interest rates at 4.0%, fearful that decreasing rates will encourage more bond selling but aware that raising rates will put more pressure on the economy. The expected rate cut in March does not occur and the Dow Jones falls by 5% in one day.

Rumours abound that the COMEX does not have enough unallocated silver to meet future contracts. The price of gold rises by 7% in a single day, a move mirrored in other commodities such as silver and copper. Several major banks face massive losses due to uncovered short positions unless the price can be forced lower.

Rumours circulate that the private credit market is sitting on a mountain of unrealised debt and this risk extends upwards into the large banking groups. The situation is not helped by the failure of a large private credit firm (R&D Capital) in the UK.

April

A five-year US bond auction finds few backers at any yield level, destroying the value of existing long-term bonds held as bank reserves. The bond market implodes in the US as long term bond rates move to 5.0% signalling that the Federal Reserve has lost control of long-term bond rates. The value of gold and silver fluctuates wildly on LBMA as traders try and cover losses in short positions held in an attempt to suppress the spot price.

A number of US banks start to limit withdrawals as cash reserves evaporate. International banks such as HSBC, UBS, Deutsche Bank and the Bank of Japan quickly follow. Major investment funds follow suit by locking accounts. Stock markets worldwide drop 23% overnight as money floods into short-term bonds which offer smaller but less risky returns.

As local currencies collapse, the US dollar rate spikes as overseas investors buy dollars as safe haven. The rising dollar causes many oversea economies to stall as the oil price increases and tensions in the Persian Gulf restrict supply. Oil is traded at $180 a barrel before falling back slightly. The gold price drops steeply as traders sell any position they hold to create liquidity. Trading in on the COMEX exchange is temporarily suspended in an attempt to stabilise the market.

Three major private credit companies file for bankruptcy in the US in the same week, transferring massive losses onto the books of major financial institutions. Regional banks worldwide start to close their doors and look to the US Fed for support.

The US Federal Reserve has two choices;

• Keep interest rates at the current level; destroy financial markets and the banking system but save the dollar in the short term.

• Lower rates, save the banks, flood the system with cash, destroy the dollar and risk hyper-inflation.

The Fed chooses option two.

To save the US G-SIBS (JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America etc) the Federal Reserve announces a recovery plan which lowers interest rates, signalling a return to money printing and a devaluation of the US dollar. The scheme effectively cuts loose all mid-tier banks in the US and a bank run ensues as customers try to move deposits into the national G-SIBS which they see as a safe haven. Regional banks expect the Federal Reserve to bail them out. It doesn’t happen this time.

Money floods out of stock markets worldwide as investors desperately try to convert equities back into cash, The Dow Jones loses another 18% overnight. In the UK FTSE 100 falls by 20%.

May

Inflation in the US and across Western Europe has a steep increase. as trade wars reduce the amount of goods in stores. The US economy faces hyper-inflation as international investors (mainly Japan) dump long-term US treasuries to shore up their own economies and the value of the US dollar plummets. Gold rebounds to $10,000 per troy ounce overnight, inflating the value of Central Bank gold reserves. It becomes almost impossible to buy gold in any form from retail outlets.

The BRICS countries immediately announce plans for a common trading system backed by gold as well as extending their support for local currency exchanges. War continues to rage in the Middle East and Europe, dominating the headlines, which only serves to mask the fact that the collapse to the global fiat monetary system is only days away.

Greg and Britney’s Story:

North London,

UK

Late Winter

Greg and Britney started the new year in a positive frame of mind. Other than feeling a little weary as a result of the recent celebrations they were in good health and both earning a good, if not substantial wage, Greg in a middle management role and Britney in childcare.

The only real cloud on the horizon was the general household finances. Some ‘heart-to-heart’ conversations between Christmas and the New Year allied with Greg’s experience with a spreadsheet had laid bare the extent of their overspending over the last few years. Essentially, they were living beyond their means.

At the time the outgoings didn’t seem excessive, loans were easily available through the bank and repayments on the credit cards were manageable. It just allowed the couple to enjoy the rewards of their future labour in the present rather than waiting. Recently however there had been some changes in the financial markets and the repayments were now eating into the weekly budget to a serious extent. Neither Greg or Britney viewed it as a crisis, after all the media was still talking of a strong economy and house prices were moving up as they always did, it was just something that they just had to manage in the short term. Greg joked that if the price of gold continued to rise, they could always sell their wedding rings and some jewellery. As a token gesture to the new financial reality Greg cancels his sports channel subscriptions and gym membership.

Early Spring

Greg starts to look into the possibility of ending the lease on the EV and maybe getting a second-hand car to ease the pressure on the monthly bills which have increased in line with a recent unexpected rise in interest rates. Britney reckons she might be able to do four days a week at the childcare centre which would also help with the finances. Whatever the situation, the expensive foreign holiday this year looks unlikely. Prices in the shops seem to be increasing on a weekly basis although the official inflation rate is unchanged.

Some uncertainty in the financial markets makes its way into the news cycle only to be quickly replaced by an ongoing political corruption scandal, speculation on the Oscar winners and a legal battle between two TV celebrities regarding the custody of a dog. As the first daffodils start to make an appearance, at least the weather starts to improve.

Late Spring

For a couple of days, the media is dominated by a sharp downturn in the stock market which has caught everybody by surprise. The fall is blamed on rising global tensions in the Middle East which is causing oil prices to spike.

Greg’s not quite sure how they will be affected. He has a private pension through his work but that’s not going to be collected for another thirty years. Since neither of them are lucky enough to be sitting on a large stock portfolio the news doesn’t concern them greatly.

The couple make use of the better weather by visiting Greg’s father in Norfolk before Britney starts her new four-day shift at the child care centre. The court case is settled in favour of the husband taking ownership of the dog and the news cycle returns to normal.

Monday starts with a jolt as the news reports a steep rise in inflation and concerns about the banking sector with some alarmists warning that some high street banks could even fail. Calmer voices on the TV channels point out that all deposits under £110,000 are covered by the FDIC scheme and so this is just scaremongering and a clear example of the usual nonsense pumped out by conspiracy theorists. Britney jokes she’d be happy to be sitting on a current account of that size at the moment. The price of gold takes another major leap and Greg muses whether the money spent on the gym membership over the last five years could have been better invested.

Even though Greg’s work colleagues are making light of the situation he senses a slight unease around the office as desktop monitors display financial news websites more often than Excel spreadsheets. On his lunch break, Greg notices a queue forming at the remaining bank branch in the High Street. The TV news channels continue to broadcast a calming message, referring to geopolitical tensions and war in the Middle East as the primary cause of the instability in the markets. The implication is that once this pressure eases normality will be restored. As the weekend approach’s Greg and Britney’s thoughts turn back to how they make best use of the surprise warm spell. Perhaps a BBQ in the garden before the working week starts again.

Next Post: T Day - scheduled 29th April.