Former CFTC Officials Ramp Up Push for Digital Dollar With Accenture Partnership

Former CFTC chair and crypto advocate Christopher Giancarlo has created a non-profit known as the Digital Dollar Foundation to support efforts towards a central bank digital currency for the U.S. They will be working with Accenture as a technology partner due to their prior experience working with the European Central Bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and Sweden's Riksbank on similar initiatives. The Foundation will also be working with economists, lawyers, and other technologists to create potential designs and a framework for testing the system. The idea is to create a digital token that is pegged to the U.S. dollar, but unlike existing fiat stablecoins such as USDC or Paxos, it will be backed by the Federal Reserve.

Why it matters

• The Federal Reserve has announced previously that they have looked into digitizing the dollar but were unsure of the direct benefits. This initiative will be devoting its resources to showcase how the U.S. could benefit from such an undertaking
• Recently there have been efforts from central banks around the world to create a tokenized version of their fiat currency with hopes to compete with any current or future private money such as Libra or Bitcoin that threatens fiat hegemony. The U.S. seems to be behind the rest of the world, however, the Digital Dollar Foundation could help push this movement forward.