https://reason.com/2021/06/10/the-feds-digital-dollar-would-be-nightmareville-for-privacy/ * Reason.com - Free Minds and Free Markets Reason logo Reason logo * Home * Latest * Magazine + Current Issue + Archives + Subscribe * Video * Podcasts + All Shows + The Reason Roundtable + The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie + The Soho Forum Debates * Volokh * Newsletters * Donate + Donate Online + Ways To Give To Reason Foundation + Torchbearer Society + Planned Giving * Subscribe + Print/Digital Subscriptions + Gift Subscriptions Search for: [ ] [Search] You are now logged in. Email Address[ ] Password[ ] Log In Forgot your password? Create new account Cryptocurrencies The Fed's Digital Dollar Would Be 'Nightmareville' for Privacy Chairman Jerome Powell says the Fed will look into the "benefits and risks" of a digital dollar. Ella Lubell | 6.10.2021 2:20 PM Media Contact & Reprint Requests ibphotos527891 (imageBROKER/Andy Dean/Newscom) The U.S. government is thinking about creating an electronic currency backed directly by the dollar, an idea dubbed the "digital dollar" or "Fedcoin." Such a step could severely damage trust in the dollar and risk Americans' privacy. Blockchain technology has allowed countries across the world--most notably China--to create central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which allow people to exchange money electronically without going through a bank or a secondary service such as PayPal or Venmo. In a recent video, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announced that the Fed intends to issue a discussion paper about the "benefits and risks associated with CBDC in the U.S. context." While Powell's statement was generally neutral, stressing the importance of taking time to assess "the broader risks and opportunities," other oficials have more pointedly favored the idea. Fed Governor Lael Brainard endorsed a digital dollar at a recent conference sponsored by CoinDesk, and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) wrote in March that a CBDC could help create a more "fair and equitable financial system" by allowing unbanked Americans to pay electronically without a bank account, credit card, or internet connection. CBDC boosters also argue that the currencies are more efficient, since transactions that use them would not have to travel through as many intermediaries. This, they say, could reduce the friction of international payments and make global transactions easier. It's not clear how big these benefits really are. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation reported in 2019 that only 5.4 percent of Americans lacked a bank account--a total that has been dropping rapidly. And we already have intermediaries, such as PayPal and Venmo, that can make international payments virtually instantaneous. Are these reasons enough to put Americans' privacy at risk? Paul Jossey, an adjunct fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, says the potential impact of a CBDC on Americans' financial privacy is "at best very scary." At worst, he adds, it's "nightmareville." China's digital yuan shows how CBDCs could be a tool of government surveillance and control. "Unlike many anonymous and decentralized cryptocurrencies, [it] is monitored and backed by the [People's Bank of China], affording China's leadership supreme control over all transactions," reports Asia Times. This "allows the Chinese government to integrate data collected on other platforms like the social credit system to generate a more detailed picture of individual users' buying patterns." In a video released by CGTN, a state-controlled media outlet, a fist with a symbol of the digital yuan punches the ground as a symbol of how the currency will be used to find and crush those who disobey the law. The European Union has floated plans for a CBDC with "privacy anonymity vouchers," which consumers could exchange to protect the privacy of their transactions. "But if you run out of vouchers, then that's it," says Jossey. Meanwhile, tech writer Naomi Brockwell is worried that CBDCs could allow the government to "automatically deduct taxes," "freeze funds more easily," and "program money that sits in a bank account to become worthless if it sits too long in order to encourage spending." And while Powell and Brainard have been careful to say that CBDCs would not replace cash and other payment systems, some supporters of CBDCs have other ideas. Deutsche Banke, the largest banking institution in Germany, stated in a November 2020 report that "in the long term, central bank digital currencies will replace cash." As Reason has pointed out on many different occasions, cash remains the only truly private form of transaction; a cashless society is a "pay-as-the-powers-at-be-will-let-you" society. Competitive private sector organizations have at least some incentive to prioritize privacy, as we've seen in the cryptocurrency market. The federal government has little such incentive. Much of the push for government-run digital money is driven by fears of those private cryptocurrencies. Sen. Brown, for example, pointed out that bitcoin "can be used for illegal activity." (In fact, cash is still the preferred method of choice for illegal transactions. According to a report by Chainalysis, illicit behavior accounts for less than 1 percent of all crypto activity.) Meanwhile, Brainard is worried about the widespread adoption of stablecoins--digital assets pegged to a national currency, usually the U.S. dollar. If these are widely adopted, she argues, they could recreate a system like the one the U.S. had before the creation of a national bank, where there was no one dominant currency; and that, she fears, could lead to instability. Dante Alighieri Disparte, who serves on the World Economic Forum's Digital Currency Governance Consortium, believes such concerns are unfounded. "That the majority of asset-referenced stablecoins in circulation today are pegged to the U.S. dollar speaks to how the fundamental trust in the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency of choice is being preserved by digital currencies, not circumvented by them," he writes in Coindesk. Another fear that comes up in these arguments is a fear of "falling behind" China, causing the dollar to lose its global preeminence. But "by today's hyper-competitive digital currency and blockchain standards, the U.S. may not be a laggard at all, but rather is already winning the race for the future of money and payments," Disparate argues. China's control over the flow of the digital yuan makes it an unappealing way to store assets and do business. "Americans, and people around the world, trust the dollar not just because the government behind it is powerful but also because it is constrained by a robust body of law, among whose pillars is the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures," writes Washington Post columnist Charles Lane. "We should be very sure of the benefits of CBDC before granting the central bank powers that could be bent to Orwellian purposes, either by this government or, in the event of hacking, a foreign one." The best future of money is not in a centralized public digital currency. It's in a free marketplace marked by privacy, innovation, and choice. NEXT: In the Heights Is a Charming Musical About Immigration and Entrepreneurship Ella Lubell is the summer 2021 Burton C. Gray Memorial Intern at Reason. Cryptocurrencies Federal Reserve Currency Monetary Policy Privacy China Bitcoin Media Contact & Reprint Requests Show Comments (16) Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time. Report abuses. 1. Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland June.10.2021 at 2:23 pm When has the 4th ammendment ever stopped the Gov from stealing people's money? Log in to Reply 1. Olive Ramey June.11.2021 at 12:30 am Making money online more than 15$ just by doing simple work from home. I have received $18376 last month. Its an easy and simple job to do and its DSD earnings are much better than regular office job and even a little child can do this and earns money. Everybody must try this job by just use the info on this page.....VISIT HERE Log in to Reply 2. Jefferson's Ghost June.10.2021 at 2:33 pm "Dante Alighieri Disparte" Future author of a book describing the nine levels of federally-monitored financial hell? Log in to Reply 1. Unicorn Abattoir June.10.2021 at 3:31 pm The 9th level is where they keep the bureaucrats and politicians who betray their citizens. It's a pretty crowded place. Log in to Reply 1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) June.10.2021 at 4:36 pm It's a pretty crowded place. Why does it look like an upscale neighborhood in Maryland? Log in to Reply 1. Unicorn Abattoir June.10.2021 at 6:17 pm Well, it is run by Democrats... Log in to Reply 3. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) June.10.2021 at 2:38 pm Just so you know, Bitcoin and that great for privacy either. Log in to Reply 1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) June.10.2021 at 2:42 pm Hoo boy. For instance, the U.S.-based exchange Coinbase was recently ordered by a court to turn over to the Internal Revenue Service information regarding approximately 14,000 of its customers. A brief review of several exchanges' online privacy policies indicates that exchanges will share a user's information as needed to comply with their legal and regulatory obligations. Log in to Reply 4. buckleup June.10.2021 at 2:47 pm Seems China's real bent about people who can load anything they want to into the blockchain. So yeah they are forking it to what they control. No shit. That's the price of dealing with large central governments, and they ain't going away. Log in to Reply 5. ElvisIsReal June.10.2021 at 2:56 pm There's no reason the dollar needs to be more digital. The scary shit comes when the government copies China and issues money with a "spend by" date. Log in to Reply 6. Its_Not_Inevitable June.10.2021 at 3:08 pm "could help create a more "fair and equitable financial system"" This is always how you know they're lying. Log in to Reply 7. Unicorn Abattoir June.10.2021 at 3:33 pm So if you ever get a digital dollar, how many of you plan on copy /pasting to see if you can create more? Log in to Reply 8. JFree June.10.2021 at 3:37 pm The best future of money is not in a centralized public digital currency. It's in a free marketplace marked by privacy, innovation, and choice. So what. The US is not required to support a currency 'in a free marketplace marked by privacy, innovation, and choice'. It is however required to have a currency. We call it the dollar. If it goes digital, it will do so not because it is competing with Bitcoin or Ethereum. It will do so to compete with some CBDC - maybe China (which does seem to have an internal deadline for its version), more likely Switzerland or Bahamas or Japan or Eurolandia. If it does not go digital, it will have nothing to do with privacy or other technical specs (which are going to be determined by the full range of CBDC's not the US in arrogant isolation). It will be because existing intermediaries (banks, primary-dealers, Wall St) decide they would prefer to kill it. And they will pay a ton of money to any think tank willing to whore themselves out to try to undermine what they already oppose. The entire public argument here is going to be an exercise in how corrupt can a public discussion be without making it glaringly obvious. Log in to Reply 9. Fleaspirit June.11.2021 at 11:02 am The simple truth is that digital currencies are evolving and those countries which prepare will survive economically, and those which don't won't. The economy is switching to online type work, and there are lots of jobs which can be done online through 'taskwork', something digital currencies are the most efficient solution for. A 'digital dollar' might prompt bureaucrats to restrict other currencies, but by itself a digital dollar is necessary and helpful, until then. Log in to Reply 10. Davy C June.11.2021 at 5:24 pm I don't understand what a "digital dollar" does that a bank account doesn't do. Log in to Reply 11. topazann June.13.2021 at 10:18 am The New World Order is nearly here. The push to digital currency is not new, except for the larger than usual push by the oligarchs and big banks. Why, one might ask? In a word: CONTROL, control over EVER facet of our finances (and our lives). If we move to digital currency, paper money will be phased out shortly thereafter. https://digital-planner.com/budget/planner Log in to Reply Please log in to post comments Latest Michigan Cops Raided a Home, Damaged the House, and Held a Family at Gunpoint. It Was the Wrong Address. 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