CNBC Interviews DCI's Neha Narula and reports on WEF Davos 2020 'Calls for a US ‘digital dollar’ rise as China powers ahead with a digital yuan’'
DCI’s Neha Narula was interviewed by CNBC whilst she was participating at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The article titled ‘Calls for a US ‘digital dollar’ rise as China powers ahead with a digital yuan’ and was published on Jan 23rd 2020.
“DAVOS, Switzerland — A growing number of voices are calling for the U.S. to issue a “digital dollar” as China continues to work on a digital version of its own currency.
Users of the U.S. dollar are “underserved by an analogue currency in a digital world,” Christopher Giancarlo, former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said during an event in Davos.
“I think it’s very much worth considering,” Neha Narula, director of the Digital Currency Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), told CNBC at Davos.
The comments come as China is working on a digital yuan which some experts believe could come this year.
Why digital currencies?
It’s unclear what form a central bank issued digital currency could take. It could be built on blockchain-like architecture. Blockchain is the underlying technology behind the cryptocurrency bitcoin. But it doesn’t necessarily need to be.
The promise of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) is that it could make cross-border movement of money easier and improve traceability to fight corruption or money laundering, according to Henri Arslanian, global crypto leader at PwC.
“The potential traceability features of CBDCs could, for the first time, give us a good fighting change against corruption and money laundering. CBDCs also could allow policymakers to measure the impact of certain policies accurately and immediately,” Arslanian told CNBC at Davos…”