Nicholas: Once the system is in place you cannot go back

100%.

Same goes with Digital Euro btw, no matter what the EU says about making it optional. It will be, sure, to begin with but they will also start pushing even more laws to help get rid of cash (in France, we're already forbidden to carry more than a thousand euros in cash, I think it's 500 in Greece (not sure about this one). And when cash will be gone so will be our ability to not be tracked when buying stuff. They will monitor every single of our transactions—and penalize whatever they decide is not good for us/the country/the planet/their businesses, be it too purchasing much gas, too much food (because one needs to be fit, unless they agree to not benefit health assurance maybe), too much clothes, or whatever (to just list a few legal things one can buy nowadays). They will also quickly use their (monopolistic) control over that digital euro (and over all our bank accounts) to punish any serious opposing their rules/laws by making said opponents unable to access or, say, to just use their money to buy stuff that would help them organize and contest them. "Sorry, Libb your purchase of Orwell's '1984' and Huxley's 'Brave New World' can't be finalized. Instead, you can always scroll some more on social media. Have a nice day."

What a bright future.