US Lawmakers Introduce 'ECASH' Bill in New Push to Create a Digital Dollar

A radical of U.S. lawmakers says the U.S. Treasury Department whitethorn beryllium the close authorities entity to make a integer dollar – not the Federal Reserve. A caller measure introduced Monday would authorize conscionable that.

Reps. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), Jesús Chuy Garcia (D-Ill.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) introduced the "Electronic Currency And Secure Hardware Act" (ECASH Act) to nonstop the Treasury Secretary to make and contented an physics mentation of the U.S. dollar, with an oculus to preserving privateness and anonymity successful transactions.

The physics dollar, arsenic defined successful the bill, would beryllium a bearer instrumentality that radical could clasp connected their telephone oregon a card. The strategy would beryllium token-based, not account-based, meaning if idiosyncratic were to suffer their telephone oregon card, they would suffer the funds. In different words, it'd beryllium similar losing a wallet with dollar bills successful it.

This physics dollar would beryllium deemed ineligible tender and beryllium functionally identical to a carnal greenback.

Rohan Grey, an adjunct prof astatine Willamette University who consulted connected the bill, told CoinDesk the measure is meant to make a existent integer analogue to the U.S. dollar.

“We’re proposing to person a genuine cash-like bearer instrument, a token-based strategy that doesn't person either a centralized ledger oregon distributed ledger due to the fact that it had nary ledger whatsoever. It uses secured hardware bundle and it's issued by the Treasury," helium said.

This signifier of ecash would enactment peer-to-peer transactions, and fixed the quality of its setup, would enactment afloat anonymous transactions.

In this it would disagree from different proposals for a integer dollar, which are based connected stablecoins oregon different decentralized ledger tools. Blockchains are designed to way each transaction, and immoderate transaction could beryllium truthful tied to the sender and receiver.

Under Lynch's proposal, users would not beryllium taxable to immoderate much terrible know-your-customer rules than anyone trying to usage cash. They would person to get the ecash dollars via a slope account, peer-to-peer transaction oregon a store, but could past bash immoderate they liked with it.

Grey said this strategy could service radical who are incapable to clasp slope accounts owed to minimum equilibrium requirements, oregon those who bash not spot banks due to the fact that banks whitethorn complaint fees oregon frost funds.