Nonprofit Digital Dollar Project Plans Five Tests For Concept

With cryptocurrencies like bitcoin beset by price spikes (and slides), a nonprofit organization plans to test the concept of a U.S. central bank digital currency in at least five pilot programs.

The U.S. nonprofit Digital Dollar Project said Monday (May 3) it will roll out five pilot programs over the next year to test the potential uses — and advantages — of a U.S. central bank digital currency.

In a press release, the organization said it would work “with interested stakeholders and DDP participants” to assess the uses of a “digital dollar.”  The group is a partnership between the professional services company Accenture and the Digital Dollar Foundation.

The test plan is the first effort of its kind in the U.S. The foundation is led by J. Christopher Giancarlo, Charles H. Giancarlo and Daniel Gorfine. The goal is to develop a framework for taking potential steps to the creation of a digital dollar.

“Central bank digital currencies will play an important role in how we modernize our financial systems, said David Treat, a senior managing director at Accenture, who leads its blockchain practice globally. He said the plan is “to learn from pilot programs across a range of use cases and share the outcomes and insights in an open and transparent manner.”

“The U.S. doesn’t need to be first to the central bank digital currency, but it does need to be a leader in setting standards for the digital future of money, which is why our pilot testing collaboration with Accenture and other partners is so critical,” said J. Giancarlo, former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and co-founder of the foundation. Speaking generally, he added, “We need to better understand how to balance the complex issues of a CBDC and how to incorporate key societal values, like privacy rights, financial inclusion and rule of law.”

The release said that the project’s effort will complement work already under way by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.