Quick News Bit

Why Some Lawmakers Are Attempting to Halt CBDC Testing in the US

0

Several countries — including the US — are conducting research around the development of their respective central bank digital currencies (CBDC). However, ahead of plans to launch a pilot of the ‘digital dollar’ in the US, some lawmakers are questioning the development of a CBDC in the country. US Congressman Alex Mooney has proposed a bill called the Digital Dollar Pilot Prevention Act (H.R. 3712). The legislation urges the US Federal Reserve to stop the research and development related to the introduction of the CBDC or digital dollar.

In his proposal, the US Congressman has said that CBDCs could be a threat to “law abiding Americans”. The Congressman further states that these centralised digital currencies are “being used by authoritarian countries right now to crack down on dissent.”

“This bill would prohibit the Federal Reserve from establishing, carrying out, or approving a program intended to test the practicability of issuing a CBDC,” the Congressman said.

A Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is the virtual representation of a fiat currency on a blockchain network. Similar to cryptocurrency in functionality, but controlled by central banks — CBDCs are capable of registering permanent records of transactions on the blockchain, while also reducing national dependency on cash notes.

Despite its advanced operability element, a group of US lawmakers have joined hands with Mooney on this proposal. A total of 14 House Republicans have chosen to co-sponsor this bill along with the Congressman. The proposal reportedly notes that its acceptance would “prevent the Federal Reserve from bypassing the will of Congress.”

Among other concerns, the co-sponsors of the bill have united over fears of the CBDC posing a threat to the financial privacy of the citizens while potentially opening the door to government surveillance.

“The Federal Reserve caught attention late last year for its CBDC pilot projects, even contracting with the private sector to build potential CBDCs for the United States which went beyond traditional research,” Mooney has added.

This is not the first time however, that policymakers in the US have spoken against introducing a digital dollar. Previously, US Senator Ted Cruz introduced the “No Digital Dollar Act” while Congressman Tom Emmer proposed the “CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act.”

Meanwhile, Hong Kong, China, India, and Australia are among many countries that are accelerating efforts around their CBDC initiatives.


Samsung Galaxy A34 5G was recently launched by the company in India alongside the more expensive Galaxy A54 5G smartphone. How does this phone fare against the Nothing Phone 1 and the iQoo Neo 7? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
Affiliate links may be automatically generated – see our ethics statement for details.

For all the latest Technology News Click Here 

 For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! NewsBit.us is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.

Leave a comment