Thread by @rohangrey

The Fed's report on CBDCs is out, & predictably, on the most important issue of all - protecting/maintaining cash-like privacy - there is no analysis, just assertion, that anonymity is non-viable b/c greater scale/velocity of digital. Very disappointing.

federalreserve.gov/publications/f…

I've made this point before, but it's important to emphasize: the Fed is not statutorily responsible for issuing cash, nor does its mandate or expertise extend to issues of preserving civil liberties or balancing security/privacy concerns. Its opinions/preferences are not gospel.

Presently and for thousands of years, individuals are/have been able to transact with cash anonymously, and do not need/have not needed to sign-up or provide their identity in order to make transactions with public money. Eliminating that capacity in the digital age is extreme.

Or to put it another way, designing a digital dollar to preserve the anonymity-respecting features of cash in the digital age is a small-c conservative defense of existing freedoms, not a handout to criminals or money launderers. The burden is on those wanting to kill cash.

Luckily, we don't have to rely on the Fed to have a change of heart, because the creation of a digital dollar is not the exclusive purview of a bunch of macroeconomically trained bureaucrats. It's a core constitutional question that the elected branches have final say over.

So let the Fed require bank-like KYC for an account-based digital dollar. But Tsy-through the Mint, Bureau of Engraving & Printing, or a new Digital Currency Bureau - can/should take responsibility for issuing (e)cash-instruments, as it has for centuries w regular cash, as well.