The US government views cryptocurrencies and the digital yuan as a threat to the dollar’s status as the world’s global reserve currency. But it has no serious interest in adopting a “real and best” version of a digital dollar. It just needs a watered-down version, a cheap ploy, to weaken popular and public interest in cryptocurrencies to fight that threat.
If Washington was serious about adopting the “best version” of the digital dollar, it would encourage very person and business to have a digital wallet, so the government can put money (like Social Security etc.) directly into it. The government would not be allowed to take money out of a wallet without authorization from the wallet owner or the court. Individuals and businesses could put money directly into the wallet and surveillance is decentralized, so the digital dollar can be tracked with court authorization. But that data isn’t being proactively collected and analysed. This would be the “ideal” system.
But it’s never going to happen, because it cuts out the banks. Eliminating the banks, money would move through the system more efficiently and the system would be cheaper to use. It is a win for everyone, except the banks.
Banks make hundreds of billions of dollars running the current inefficient system. They have zero interest in disrupting themselves and the banks own Washington. So the best version of a digital dollar is just wishful thinking. Instead, we will get a watered-down version of what the digital dollar should be and it will be an incremental change at best. Everyone will pat themselves on the back for modernizing money and then they will question the need for crypto.
But Washington does not understand that people do not want this inefficient, watered-down system. They want something better than this. They want the next generation of money and not just a small improvement that satisfy banks.
Sven Franssen