[sebastianconcpt]

Like you are five: The main driver inevitably boils down to governments wanting you cashless and using instead a currency that provides absolute observability (hence potential for further control) of your economic activity. The political class cannot resist the temptation to use that to mine resources and obedience out of everyone.

That's why China implemented it first as the chinese communist party keeps the country under relative economic freedom with absolute population behavioral control.

Corollary?

Our societies in this other side of the world aren't supposed to be vulnerable to such totalitarian measures, but are suffering a sort of contagion of that very same driver, but implemented slowly and in a more covert way. Got accelerated and more overt lately and it will be more towards the self-evident status.