The head of the Atlantic Council, a NATO think tank, Frederic Kempe, in his column for CNBC, gave the US a way to contain China and its financial system.
According to Kempe, this can be done with the help of the early development and implementation of a digital dollar, which could withstand the actively developing digital yuan.
At the same time, the financier notes that the US authorities are still skeptical about the prospects of using their own digital currency. China could use the digital yuan to weaken the dollar and undermine its global role as a reserve currency, Kempe said.
However, the digital dollar still has supporters among the American elite and officials. These primarily include Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. At the end of February, they announced that research on the possible use of the digital dollar is now being carried out by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (one of 12 Fed members) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. According to Yellen, the new currency will make life easier for many Americans who still do not have sufficient access to the country’s financial system and traditional payment systems.
At the same time, analysts, including Kemppe, note that China will still have an advantage in creating a national digital currency – largely due to its disdainful approach to information confidentiality and data protection.
Currently, about 70 countries are developing national digital currencies. The most active are China and Sweden. There is a corresponding project in Russia, where it is supervised by the Central Bank. Digital currency differs from cryptocurrencies primarily in that it is issued by the central bank and acts as an alternative official means of payment in addition to cash and non-cash money.