Testimony before the
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES
Task Force on Financial Technology
Hearing on
“Digitizing the Dollar: Investigating the Technological Infrastructure, Privacy, and
Financial Inclusion Implications of Central Bank Digital Currencies”
June 15, 2021
Rohan Grey
Assistant Professor of Law, Willamette University
Introduction
Thank you Chair Lynch, Ranking Member Davidson, and members of this Task Force,
for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Rohan Grey. I am an Assistant Professor
of Law at Willamette University, where I research money and technology, specializing in
the design and regulation of digital fiat currency.1
I also serve as a Vice-Chair of the Policy and Governance Working Group at the Digital
Currency Global Initiative, a partnership between Stanford University and the United
Nations’ International Telecommunications Union. In that capacity, I work with
policymakers and industry representatives from around the world to develop and
harmonize technical and regulatory standards concerning digital fiat currency, with a
focus on privacy, identity, and on-boarding issues.
As the author of a forthcoming book titled “Digitizing the Dollar: the Battle for the Soul
of Public Money in the Age of Cryptocurrency” (Melville House, 2022), I am grateful
for the opportunity to participate in a hearing that shares its title, and to offer my
personal views on the technological infrastructure, privacy, and financial inclusion
implications of publicly issued digital currencies.
...
1. Situating CBDC Within a Broader Vision of Digital Fiat Currency
I come here today in support of the creation of a digital dollar. Properly designed and
administered, a digital dollar system could improve financial access and equity,
revitalize the direct public provisioning of payments and banking services, and
ensure the United States meets the evolving challenges of the 21st century digital
economy. To that end, I thank and commend each of you on this Task Force, as well as
your colleagues on the Senate side, for taking the potential of a digital dollar seriously,
and for giving the nuanced technical and policy issues it raises the thoughtful attention
they deserve.
Nevertheless, I am afraid I must begin my substantive remarks with a quibble, albeit a
gentle and mostly provocative one. In particular, my complaint is with the use of the
term “central bank digital currency” in the title of this hearing. In my view, it is a
mistake to equate and reduce the idea of a “digital dollar” to that of a “central
bank digital currency.” The former encompasses a wide spectrum of designs,
architectures, and arrangements, while the latter refers only to a narrow segment of that
spectrum in which central banks are the exclusive issuers and administrators.
To be clear, I believe the Federal Reserve should and will play a central role in any
future digital dollar regime introduced in the United States. I also strongly endorse the
FedAccounts proposal of my co-panelist Professor Menand and his colleagues.3 But in
my view, the universe of digital fiat currency possibilities that we should be
exploring at this stage extends beyond that which the vocabulary of CBDCs allows
us to consider.
Continues: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/BA/BA00 ... 210615.pdf
