Former CFTC Chairman, Accenture Envision A Fed-Issued Digital Currency Distributed By Banks

Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman Christopher Giancarlo presented a detailed look into his Digital Dollar Project at the event in Davos.

A Fed-Issued Currency

The aim of the Digital Dollar Project is to encourage the launch of a central bank digital currency in the United States, according to Giancarlo.

"We seek to encourage the next major innovation in the [United States] currency: a tokenized fiat currency issued by the Federal Reserve System."  

"A new digital form of the Dollar that, alongside traditional fiat coins, bank notes and reserves, would enjoy the full faith and credit of the U.S. government as central bank money," former CFTC chairman and currently one of the founders of the project said in prepared remarks for the Block's event at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Giancarlo's comments come at a time when the European, Japanese, and Canadian central banks are grouping to study the prospects of launching virtual currencies in their countries individually.

The Digital Dollar Project announced last week is a partnership between consultancy company Accenture plc ACN and Giancarlo's Digital Dollar Foundation (DDF).

The other founders of the DDF include another former CFTC official Daniel Gorfine and Pure Storage Inc. PSTG CEO Charles Giancarlo, who is also a former Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO executive.

Distributed By Banks

Giancarlo said that such a digital dollar would be distributed through commercial banks and other trusted payment processors, The Block reported.

The idea seems similar to the People's Bank of China's CBDC that will reportedly be distributed through commercial banks and financial technology companies like Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd.'s BABA Alipay and Tencent Holdings Ltd's WeChat.

The former CFTC chairman also added that typical risks associated with such virtual currencies could be mitigated "by channeling a digital dollar through the U.S. banking system," according to The Block.

Price Action

Accenture's shares closed 0.12% higher at $209.41 on Wednesday.