By the late 2020s the war on cash was no longer a metaphor. Physical notes were withdrawn, bank branches closed, and the concept of anonymous exchange was redefined in legislation as a red flag.
Online privacy restrictions followed. Encryption was not banned outright — it was simply made so legally treacherous that only criminals and a handful of oddballs like Brud Linden continued to use it. What the chronicle captured, above all, was the psychology of the shift. People did not resist. They thanked the regulators for the safer world.