U.S. Congressman Jim Himes Releases White Paper on the Digital Dollar

June 22, 2012 – U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) has released a white paper titled “Winning the Future of Money: The Central Bank of the United States Digital Currency Proposal. It includes a general summary of global CBDC adoption, as well as a traditional assessment of CBDC’s strengths and weaknesses. The white paper supports the Congressional initiative to authorize the Federal Reserve to issue CBDCs. The white paper highlights the “novel and serious privacy challenges that would be posed by a U.S. CBDC. While Himes’ proposal maintains the need for commercial banks to handle retail user accounts, it specifies an “account-based” rather than “token-based” structure that requires “a robust user identification process,” and “an intermediary to prove the wallet holder’s identity. intermediaries are needed to prove the identity of the wallet holder. “