A draft of the coronavirus stimulus bill prepared by House Democrats includes a proposal to create a digital dollar, The Block has learned.
According to the draft text, a digital dollar is described as "a balance expressed as a dollar value consisting of digital ledger entries that are recorded as liabilities in the accounts of any Federal reserve bank."
However, the final version of the law is yet to be confirmed which means that the provision of the digital dollar may be off the list.
According to the draft, digital dollars will exist in a "digital dollar wallet," which is further defined as a "digital wallet, maintained by a Federal reserve bank on behalf of any person, that represents holdings in an electronic device or service that is used to store digital dollars that may be tied to digital or physical identity."
If and when the bill is approved, all Federal reserve banks shall reportedly make digital dollar wallets available to all citizens and legal permanent residents of the United States and business entities for which the principal place of business is located in the United States not later than January 1, 2021.
Earlier Christopher Giancarlo, a former chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said that, in his opinion, the Federal Reserve should launch a digital dollar.
The former president of the CTFC believes that the launch of this currency would be beneficial for US online shopping, as it would eliminate the fees that are paid to intermediaries involved in payments.
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