While US lawmakers return from their backdown in August, the debate on the Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) is again ahead of crypto policy.
In the latest phase of byte-sized Insight, Cointelegraph spoke with Sheila Warren, CEO of the Project Liberty Institute, about whether CBDC’s debate in Washington reflects real risks or political posting, and what it means for the future of digital dollars.
The debate on cbdc
Supporters of the bill have argued that a CBDC would endanger civil freedom by providing a government that had not yet accessible to financial data.
Representative Tom Emmer, who sponsored The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act passed by the house in July, warned: “It is government-controlled, programmed money that, if designed without cash privacy protections, can provide the federal government with the ability to surveil and tighten American transactions and monitor every aspect of our daily lives.”
But policy experts suggest that the framing specifically has averse the issue. The Federal Reserve has repeatedly stated that it will not launch a CBDC without clear permission from Congress, and any potential design may include privacy protections.
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“You can design a CBDC with significant blockers and protects privacy. You can design a CBDC … which is completely transparent and with zero blockers. And these are the design options,” Warren said.
“So far, this idea that a CBDC is some urgent threat to American privacy, I just don’t see it. Many of the current posture are rhetoric and political in nature.”
The US position also stands in contrast to other major economies. China has released its version of a CBDC, while the European Union and India are running pilots.
“What you see today is really a significant variation in the US from many other major economies … The US, under this administration and this Congress, has taken a very anti-CBDC bearing,” Warren said.
He was identified between the wholesale CBDCs, which were used for interbank repairs, and CBDC retail, which would face the consumer. “In the US, I never thought a retail CBDC was really going to happen. The wholesale makes sense. The retail is not,” he said.
The stablecoins and ai fear
Instead, the growth of stablecoins can make the CBDC question unrelated. Congress The Genius Act recently passedproviding stablecoins a regulatory framework that can speed up the adoption.
Warren asked:
“Now that we have stablecoins … they will expand and be what I call the jet fuel of the digital economy. Calculus is changing as needed even CBDCs.”
While lawmakers remain fixed in the CBDC battle, some have warned that more immediate privacy threats are unnoticed.
“There’s a huge threat to my privacy is what’s going on with my data, what I’m giving voluntarily, what most of us give to AI,” Warren said. “For example, GMC sells individual driver data … I found out more scary.”
Listen to the entire stage of the byte-sized perspective for complete interview with cointelegraph podcasts Page, Apple podcast o Spotify. And don’t forget to check the entire cointelegraph lineup of other shows!
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