The US Federal Reserve listed the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC) as one of its “key functions” in a document presented to members of Congress.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a Republican from Minnesota, say Fed officials presented his staff earlier during the congressional session with a document titled “Key Duties of the Fed – Payment Systems.”
“If you don’t think the Fed is pursuing a CBDC, think again… They consider a CBDC one of their MOST IMPORTANT DUTIES.”
Emmer, an outspoken crypto supporter and CBDC skeptic who once said that digitized fiat dollars would be nothing more than a way for the government to spy on its citizens’ financial transactions, provided no additional context for the Fed document.
However, while testifying before Congress last week, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said his institution has no plans to roll out a CBDC anytime soon.
“We are not recommending a central bank digital currency anywhere, or let alone its adoption in any form, but the idea is that as technology has evolved, money has become digital.
If you look at your bank account, people don’t own those physical dollars. They are digital. The idea was that the government could create a digital form of money that people could transfer among themselves.”
Powell also says the Fed doesn’t want a CBDC that allows the government to see people’s transactions.
“That’s just something that we wouldn’t stand for or do or propose here in the United States. That’s how it works in China, for example.”
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