US CBDC White paper launchedDigital Dollar Project is winning the race to launch the world’s first Central Digital Bank Currency (CBDC) by releasing its CBDC white paper. Countries with significant progress and maybe ahead of the US include China, which has already deployed a pilot program of its CBDC across four cities, including Shenzhen and Chengdu. Sweden, through its Riksbank early in the year, conducted internal tests on the working of e-krona. Just you know Sweden is the least cash-dependent country globally. In Japan, the eurozone, Switzerland, and Britain central banks from these countries are also keen on the issuance of CBDC and already assessing potential use cases.
Slightly above two weeks after the Bitcoin halving event, on May 28, Digital Dollar published its first 50-page white paper making a case for the introduction of a CBDC. Digital Dollar is a project founded by Accenture and a group of former government officials, including former leaders of the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC). The white paper explains the fundamentals of its digital dollar as a CBDC and how to roll out the digital currency. Further, it discusses the benefits of a US CBDC, potential use cases, and pilot programs.
Critical Issues Discussed in the White Paper
Two-Tiered System
Digital Dollar Project is proposing through the white paper to introduce a tokenized dollar with a two-tier distribution similar to the existing model used with physical cash.
The present physical cash distribution model has the Federal Reserve printing money and distributing it to commercial banks who then distributes the cash to individuals and businesses. In the case of the digital dollars, commercial banks will exchange their reserves for digital dollars, and just like with fiat money; they are going to distribute it to end-users. Points of access to these digital dollars can be via ATMs, apps, or cards.
Privacy
Privacy has always been an issue among supporters and users of cryptocurrencies. Already there are many cryptos out here promising users of utmost privacy to users and enthusiasts who want to avoid their spending tracked by governments. However, only a few are genuinely committed to achieving this safe for Monero, Zcash, PIVX, and Verge that have remained committed to addressing the privacy concerns of their users.
Digital Dollar does not pronounce itself on how it will achieve privacy for its prospective users. In fact, the white paper points out that it seeks to find a balance between guaranteeing individual privacy rights while being compliant with necessary regulatory processes and requirements. Hence, leaving out this vital feature to be decided upon by provisions from the Fourth Amendment and any other legislative measures enacted in the future. As long as the government is involved in such a project, users should be ready to undergo rigorous compliance issues via KYC and AML processes. Therefore, it won’t be easy to guarantee any privacy to anyone using the Digital Dollar.
Potential Use Cases
The project notes introducing a tokenized US dollar will contribute to improving competition among existing forms of money and users’ ability to exercise choice. Hence, the white paper outlines specific use cases for the Digital Dollar, which will be refined later after conducting set pilot programs. The use cases are mapped out in 3 different categories, namely domestic payments, international payments, and government benefits.
For instance, the Digital Dollar seeks to enable peer-to-peer payments targeting end-users, retail payments for both consumers and businesses within the domestic payments category. Additionally, some of the international payments use cases will include cross border payments and remittance payments. Finally, areas of use targeted at government applications include benefits administration and exceptional circumstances.
Financial Inclusion
A lot of digital currencies are promising to improve financial inclusion for the unbanked and under-banked populations. Similar to Libra, Digital Dollar is yet another digital currency promising to undertake the same objective. According to the promised features of the Digital Dollar and its use cases, it hopes to be an alternative to existing forms of money and expand access to the unbanked population.
