US Treasury leads group developing digital dollar

The US treasury has announced to preside over the digital dollar advancements by leading the group of US-based entities currently working on the project.

The United States Treasury Undersecretary for Domestic Finance, Nellie Liang, announced that the US treasury would lead the group working on the digital dollar project. 

The various entities involved in the project include leaders from the treasury, the Federal Reserve, National Security Council and other US-based agencies.

The United States has been among the slowest ‘big economies’ to test out Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). While speaking on Wednesday at the Atlantic Council, the American think tank of international affairs, Nellie highlighted that the entities involved in the project would soon begin to fast-track the digital dollar’s development concerning national interests.

In her remarks, Liang gave a snapshot of several attributes the Central Bank-issued digital dollar is expected to meet to be fully effective in the monetary space. According to Nellie, the digital dollar will act as a legal tender, similar to the fiat currently in circulation today.

Nellie also added that the US CBDC project would be more effective and efficient in domestic and international real-time 24-hour transactions than the current system.

The Undersecretary also stated that launching the digital dollar will also bring in a variety of risks, such as a failure to balance user privacy while at the same time preventing its use in illicit activities such as money laundering. A pro-bitcoin congressman also addressed the issue of privacy.

The roots of CBDCs in the US

After a powerful explosion of decentralized finance hit the world, governments have worked tirelessly to unveil central bank-issued digital currencies such as the digital dollar.

In May 2020, the DPP released the first draft of the digital dollar white paper. As a replica, January’s draft has initiated a spark in various economies leading to an increase in CBDC projects from 35 to 114 as of Jan. 19 since the debut of the draft.

Nigeria has recently appeared on the radar as it tries to spearhead mass adoption of its already launched CBDC called eNaira.