Annual PPE Lecture - Professor Alex Voorhoeve (LSE) on 'Power, Privacy, and the Digital Pound'
| Dates: | 19 March 2025 |
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| Times: | 15:00 - 16:30 |
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| What is it: | Lecture |
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| Organiser: | School of Social Sciences |
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| How much: | Free |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Current University students |
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| Speaker: | Professor Alex Voorhoeve |
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We are pleased to announce the Annual PPE lecture for 2025. This is a lecture on interdisciplinary issues relating to philosophy, politics, and economics. Our speaker this year will be Professor Alex Voorhoeve, who will be discussing ‘Privacy, Power, and the Digital Pound.’
Professor Voorhoeve is based at the LSE, and works on the theory and practice of distributive justice (especially as it relates to health). He has acted as a consultant researcher to the WHO, the World Bank, and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. He is also a member of the Bank of England’s and UK Treasury’s Academic Advisory Group on the development of a ‘digital pound.’
The talk will last 45 minutes, and will be followed by a Q&A of up to 45 minutes. We will hold a free drinks reception after the event, which will run until 18.00. Attendance is free, but please register using the Eventbrite page.
Event Details
- Speaker: Professor Alex Voorhoeve (LSE)
- Date: 15.00-16.30 on Wednesday 19 March 2025
- Location: Simon Building 3.44A
- Title: Privacy, Power, and the Digital Pound
- Abstract: Many central banks are experimenting with, or seriously considering, a fully digital version of their currencies. Many critics have argued that such Central Bank Digital Currencies will undermine privacy by giving governments more information about our everyday financial transactions and new power to discipline and punish citizens. The Bank of England's proposed design of the "Digital Pound" attempts to address these concerns by giving citizens anonymized digital wallets. Only private wallet service providers will know wallet holders' identities; the Bank of England will not. An incentive for private wallet providers' to supply their services, the proposal runs, will be the right to process and sell wallet users' data, with users' consent. This talk argues that, with some additional measures, this proposal may indeed mitigate concerns about privacy and power vis-a-vis the state. But it also argues that the Bank of England's proposals raises a different worry: that it will increase, in a problematic way, the private information and economic power held by private companies.
Speaker
Professor Alex Voorhoeve
Organisation: LSE
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
3.44A
Simon Building
Manchester
