Jerome Powell, the chairman, said that they do not feel an urge or need to be first on CDBCs, as CoinDesk reports. Furthermore, him and the Federal Reserve feel like the US already has a first-mover advantage because the USD is the reserve currency.
Powell estimated it will take years rather than months before the Fed releases a CBDC, despite early studies of digital dollar–friendly blockchains at the central bank’s Boston outpost. He added the Fed is investing heavily in understanding the technology and looking at the policy questions CBDCs pose.
Powell also admitted it was the private sector’s ability to create private money (in other words, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies) that caused the Fed to look into CBDCs. There is also a need for the Fed to be focused on better regulatory answers for global stablecoins, Powell said. At the end of last year, U.S. President Trump’s Working Group on Financial Markets released a report that said stablecoins should meet the same regulatory standards as other aspects of the financial system.
To learn more about this topic, CBDCs, download our ebook Central Bank Digital Currencies for Dummies – A Quick Guide into CBDCs.
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