Cryptocurrency
Brainard Says Fed Is Conducting E-Money Tests for Research
As reported on Bloomberg, “The Federal Reserve is conducting experiments with a hypothetical digital dollar for research purposes, though it hasn’t yet committed to issuance that would require a formal policy process involving the government and other stakeholders, Governor Lael Brainard said Thursday. “In addition to the Fed’s own internal work, research teams from the […]
As reported on Bloomberg, “The Federal Reserve is conducting experiments with a hypothetical digital dollar for research purposes, though it hasn’t yet committed to issuance that would require a formal policy process involving the government and other stakeholders, Governor Lael Brainard said Thursday.
“In addition to the Fed’s own internal work, research teams from the Boston Fed and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are engaged in a ‘multi-year effort to build and test a hypothetical digital currency oriented to central bank uses,’ she said.
“’Lessons from this collaboration will be published, and any codebase that is developed through this effort will be offered as open-source software for anyone to use for experimentation,’ Brainard said, according to the text of her remarks prepared for delivery to a virtual technology event.
“U.S. central bankers were slow to warm to the idea of a digital currency, but their interest picked up after Facebook proposed its own unit of exchange for its users. Digital money could change the way monetary policy works in the economy, as well as speed up a payment system that remains slow and taxing for consumers and behind many other nations. The Fed is separately developing its own same-day settlement payment system called FedNow…”