Deputies of the Democratic Party of the United States of America proposed the creation of a "digital dollar"...

   Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from the Democratic Party of the U.S. Congress are preparing to present a bill that describes the issue of "digital dollar".

The draft document on the measures against the Coronavirus pandemic, dated March 22, does not propose to create a cryptographic currency based on distributed registry technology. The digital dollar refers to "a balance expressed in dollar value that exists as a monetary obligation in the accounts of any Federal Reserve Bank; or an electronic unit of value that can be redeemed in any financial institution vested with such authority by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors".

The document already contains more than 1,000 pages, and the final version is expected to contain more than 1,400 pages. It is likely that the digital dollar provision will be removed at a later date. According to a source familiar with the situation, it raises a number of questions, including the establishment of appropriate infrastructure.

Apparently, the ideas presented in the bill are based on a proposal of Michigan MP Rashida Tlaib, who previously stated the need for a digital public system of currency wallets, which will be managed by the Ministry of Finance.

It is expected that e-currency will be stored in a "digital dollar wallet," which will reflect assets on an electronic device or service used to store digital dollars. It is also envisaged to create a number of intermediate wallets that can be used to access funds contributed by the authorities. Wallets will be managed by Federal Reserve banks through individual entities. Transactions on them cannot be subject to commissions, and their functionality should be at the level of normal bank transfers.

"Participating banks with consolidated assets totalling more than $10 billion should accelerate the use of intermediate digital dollar wallets by individuals through the Internet or telephone", — the document states.

Transaction costs that banks will incur due to the maintenance of wallets will be reimbursed once a quarter. If the bill is adopted with all the points described above, the banks will be obliged to develop an appropriate infrastructure and provide it to all participants of the system by the end of this year.

"The Federal Reserve Banks are obliged to create digital dollar wallets no later than January 1, 2021. They must be accessible to all American citizens and persons who have legally obtained permanent residence permits, as well as legal entities doing business primarily in the United States", — the document states.