The digital dollar has made transactions way easy for all

​​How the idea of ​​creating a digital dollar came to the US Congress

The US Congress appealed to supporters of the digitalization of the national currency against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic in the middle of the month. After 8 days, there were already two bills with relevant proposals under consideration.

Morgan Ricks, associate professor of law school at Vanderbilt University, told CoinDesk that he and his colleagues advised lawmakers. The group has long advocated the release of the digital dollar, in 2018 published a research paper on this topic, and at the beginning of the week prepared a column for Bloomberg.

“A digital wallet for the Fed would be a relatively simple method of allocating funds,” Ricks said.

The digital dollar clause has already been excluded from one bill, and is expected to be excluded from the second. Ricks claims that the idea has some support, but its implementation takes time.

“Over time, maybe next year people will really have accounts right in the Fed with digital money without involving intermediary banks. The Fed still has no opportunity to implement this plan at the retail level, ”he added.

According to him, the idea of ​​a digital dollar began to be developed last year, after a hearing on the Libra stablecoin problem: “The fact that this proposal went so far reflects a large amount of tacit work.”

A source familiar with the situation said Senator Sherrod Brown, who had originally submitted the bill on Monday, intends to seek further consideration of the proposal. According to his plan, the digital dollar will not only help citizens during a pandemic, but also increase the availability of financial services.

“My initiative will allow every American to open a free bank account. Then they don’t have to rely on expensive check cashing services to get the money earned by overwork, ”Brown said.

World Economic Forum blockchain head and state consultant Sheila Warren on Thursday joined the initiative to launch the digital dollar initiative of Christopher Giancarlo, former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). She doubts the prospects of the digital dollar under the Fed's control, as well as the possibility of urgent issuance of such an instrument: “You can’t do this quickly and thoughtfully. Paper checks may not be ideal, but the idea of ​​an instant launch is also unrealistic. ”

David Treet, managing director of Accenture, a digital dollar development company with Giancarlo, said the practical implementation of the solution would require collecting citizen data and incorporating it into the incentive distribution system. According to him, such a system will really be useful, but only in future crises.

“Now we need to focus on what is already available,” he added.