Could The Stimulus Bill Accelerate A Digital Dollar?
Plus commentary on centralization vs trust and the MakerDAO challenge
Happy Tuesday, Blockfolians
The Lede
One of the major challenges for any stimulus package that includes direct payments to Americans is the actual mechanism for getting funds to them. Yesterday, a number of bills in Congress introduced an idea of a ‘digital dollar’ as a mechanism. Today, a draft bill in the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs further defined a digital dollar and how it might be maintained - going so far as to brand the associated digital wallets “FedAccounts.”
At this point, it’s anyone’s guess as to what makes it to the final stimulus bill. What’s more, many in crypto are pointing out that these digital dollars are decidedly not the cryptocurrencies of your dreams.
Still, there’s no denying that a (perhaps unexpected) second order effect of COVID-19 is a radically accelerated conversation about the need for a next generation digital payments infrastructure in the US. Wild times.
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Highly Relevant Reading
It’s not just a US digital dollar accelerating, as reports indicate that the People’s Bank of China is getting closer to launching their own national digital currency
More competition for CashApp and Robinhood as Revolut launches in the US
Even as the country starts a 21-day lockdown, Indian crypto startups are raising money
Chainalysis and P2P exchanges - a match made in……heaven?
Community Commentary
Ben Sparango and Tony Sheng of Multicoin Capital suggest that degrees of trust may be a better way to organize crypto products than “centralized” vs. “decentralized
The price chaos of the last few weeks has had big implications for the MakerDAO system as well. A new research piece by Dragonfly Capital breaks it down.
A Really Big Number That You Should Be Paying Attention To
8
That’s the number of states that have designated “blockchain managers” in food and agriculture as “essential employees” during the coronavirus crisis - following the DHS doing the same. Maybe there is more adoption that we knew
ANOTHER Really Big Number You Should Be Paying Attention To
$6,000,000,000,000
That’s the size of the new stimulus bill being floated by the White House. When they said “unlimited cash,” they really meant it.
Final Thought
Stop trying to ruin our fun, Joe.