In Defense of a Digital Dollar
On the issue of instant payments networks, the U.S. is already behind many of its G-20 counterparts, and is hoping to catch up with FedNow this year. FedNow, however, does not connect individuals with CBDCs. Its audience is financial institutions, which will be able to finalize transactions faster with each other, if the program is ever fully rolled out. It will also not offer other benefits such as interoperability with other assets and technological benefits of transaction speed, cost and, most of all, transparency in money flows. Experimentation on the digital dollar should be done in tandem with the FedNow rollout and all options to improve payments should be on the table.
