Christopher Giancarlo: Why the US Needs to Have a Digital Dollar - Ep.177
Unchained
Intro
This chapter explores the growing significance of a digital dollar in the U.S. economy, highlighting the work of key players like the Digital Dollar Project. It also discusses the evolution of cryptocurrency regulation and its impact on digital finance.
At an event at the NYU Stern School of Business, Christopher Giancarlo, former CFTC Chairman and co-founder of the Digital Dollar Foundation, discusses his proposal for a US central bank digital currency (CBDC), and how that fits into the broader geopolitical environment. We cover:
- Why he has focused on pushing for a US digital dollar after leaving the CFTC
- How a US CBDC would be different from other stablecoins
- How the proposal is designed to build off of the traditional banking infrastructure
- What pilot programs would look like
- How a digital dollar would foster economic inclusion even though using the digital dollar requires owning a smartphone
- How it would handle privacy
- How the network would be secured
- Whether the US is falling behind China in terms of central bank digital currencies and blockchain exploration
- Whether Libra will be a proxy for the digital dollar
- How COVID-19 has affected the discourse around a digital dollar
- Whether the election will affect the future of the digital dollar
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Crypto.com: https://crypto.com
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Stellar: https://www.stellar.org
Episode links:
Chris Giancarlo: https://twitter.com/giancarlo
Digital Dollar Project : https://www.digitaldollarproject.org
Previous Unchained interview with Chris: https://unchainedpodcast.com/christopher-giancarlo-on-the-craziness-of-becoming-crypto-dad/
Chris and Daniel Gorfine’s WSJ op-ed advocating for a digital dollar: https://www.wsj.com/articles/we-sent-a-man-to-the-moon-we-can-send-the-dollar-to-cyberspace-11571179923
Digital dollars in stimulus bills — March: https://www.coindesk.com/house-stimulus-bills-envision-digital-dollar-to-ease-coronavirus-recession
April: https://www.coindesk.com/digital-dollar-reintroduced-by-us-lawmakers-in-latest-stimulus-bill
Pew Research on smartphone adoption: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/
FDIC survey on the unbanked and underbanked: https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/2017/2017execsumm.pdf
Banks keeping some of customers’ stimulus money: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/business/stimulus-paychecks-garnish-banks.html
Why a digital dollar is politically more feasible at this moment than before: https://www.coindesk.com/the-overton-window-opens-for-a-digital-dollar
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown also proposes digital dollar: https://www.coindesk.com/us-senate-floats-digital-dollar-bill-after-house-scrubs-term-from-coronavirus-relief-plan
Philadelphia Fed paper: https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/research-and-data/publications/working-papers/2020/wp20-19.pdf
Receptivity in Congress to the idea of a digital dollar: https://www.coindesk.com/how-a-flurry-of-digital-dollar-proposals-made-it-to-congress
Libra white paper: https://libra.org/en-US/white-paper/#cover-letter
Congressional hearing on using FedAccounts and for stimulus: https://financialservices.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=406612
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