Employees at the Federal Reserve Bank (FRS) of Boston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) plan to complete their work related to a prototype national digital currency (CBDC) by July, Bloomberg reports.
In August 2020, it was known the institutions were working on the development of a digital dollar. The project participants then announced they intended to create a "mechanism and software that meets the needs" of a CBDC for a country the size of the United States. These have also been forced to address problems such as the large number of transactions and ensuring security and confidentiality.
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Boston Fed spokesman James Cunha said the team will introduce two platforms designed to move, store and settle transactions made with digital dollars.
Cunha has stressed the research is intended to create a pilot model and does not involve defining a specific CBDC design:
"We think it’s important that we not wait for the policy debate because then we’ll be a year or so behind."
The Fed chairman Jerome Powell has previously justified the creation of a digital dollar arguing "we cannot be left behind."