US Federal Reserve Receives Pleas About Creating a National Digital Currency

The United States Federal Reserve may have received some of the most unconventional questions on September 30th, as several lawmakers from the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee asked whether a digital US Dollar would soon be in development.

Naturally, this is something that should be taken up with the Federal Reserve, as this institution has the sole authority over the future of American monetary and fiscal policies. Furthermore, they have a large say in how Fintech will be regulated in the future, and therefore need to be informed about any potential large project.

However, the reason why the lawmakers even asked about the implementation of digital fiat currency was due to an increasing trend all over the world.

According to the same lawmakers, as many as 40 sovereign nations have implemented a similar approach to their financial systems and are slowly but surely moving into a more digital space. Most importantly though, China is in the process of making such a currency and that’s exactly where the USA cannot lag behind.

Unfortunately, there was nothing mentioned about cryptocurrencies in the inquiry, which directly translates into the absence of the blockchain. Lawmakers don’t really care about making the currency into a cryptocurrency.

But, should such a large project will be introduced, it will take at least a few years simply to finish planning it, and even more years to implement it. In the long run though, it is extremely likely to cut costs in money printing and operations, as well as the easiness of making international digital transfers. However, it’s unlikely for Central banks to support this decision as they don’t really see the urgency or the necessity of undertaking such a hard project.

Image courtesy of Livemmint