[HN Gopher] Federal Reserve releases digital currency paper [pdf]
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Federal Reserve releases digital currency paper [pdf]
        
       Author : andrewla
       Score  : 5 points
       Date   : 2022-02-08 20:25 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.federalreserve.gov)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.federalreserve.gov)
        
       | andrewla wrote:
       | Key takeaways:
       | 
       | > While no decisions have been made on whether to pursue a CBDC,
       | analysis to date suggests that a potential U.S. CBDC, if one were
       | created, would best serve the needs of the United States by being
       | privacy-protected, intermediated, widely transferable, and
       | identity-verified
       | 
       | So privacy-protected sounds great, as well as widely
       | transferable.
       | 
       | Intermediated and Identity-Verified seem like terrible
       | requirements. And they water down "privacy-protected" almost
       | immediately:
       | 
       | > Privacy-protected: Protecting consumer privacy is critical. Any
       | CBDC would need to strike an appropriate balance, however,
       | between safeguarding the privacy rights of consumers and
       | affording the transparency necessary to deter criminal activity
       | 
       | So, to be clear, not private.
       | 
       | Intermediated is kind of necessary because I don't believe that
       | the Federal Reserve charter allows them to hold non-bank funds,
       | so unless this requirement is lifted it's probably the best they
       | can do.
       | 
       | Rohan Grey, a prominant MMT theorist who works with Ro Khanna,
       | has repeatedly expressed a demand for "Digital Fiat Currency" [1]
       | as opposed to "Central Bank Digital Currency" precisely because a
       | central bank is always going to try to treat money more like bank
       | money and less like cash, because bank money is so much more
       | "legible" to the state and law enforcement. But the illegibility
       | of money is still important, inconvenient as it is.
       | 
       | [1] https://rohangrey.net/files/banking.pdf
        
       | greenyoda wrote:
       | Related article: "Boston Fed releases report, source code of
       | digital currency prototype study" -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30233755
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2022-02-08 23:02 UTC)