US 'Digital Dollar' bill proposed in Senate

The US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs defined a "digital dollar" and how to maintain it. The bill, introduced by Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, proposes a digitized version of the existing dollar. It will be “dollar balances consisting of digital ledger entries recorded as liabilities in the accounts of any Federal Reserve bank.”



Wallets are to be branded as “FedAccounts” and the Fed would maintain the digital wallets on behalf of individuals. Federal Reserve member banks could create a “pass-through digital dollar wallet,” which would hold a person’s share of a pooled reserve balance that the member bank maintains at any Fed bank. “Each member bank... holding all assets and maintaining all liabilities associated with pass-through digital wallets” the bill states. A digital dollar is intended to be a method for distributing relief funds to USA citizens during the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.