The Digital Dollar - The Hidden Draft Text in the Coronavirus Stimulus Bill that is Scary as Hell!

A COVID-19 Special Edition of the

Better Call Paul Blog

[Jacksonville, FL  |  03/29/2020] 

So, many of you have read my posts about the stimulus checks that are coming, and those of you who know that know that I have been examining the text of the massive $2 trillion dollar stimulus bill. 

...and I just came across something stunning. 

To be fair, I came across this information due to the diligent and dutiful reporting from our very own Publish0x community member @NewCreationCapital in this post: https://www.publish0x.com/new-creation-podcast/episode-1-digital-dollar-in-the-covid-19-stimulus-bill-xdjezl

...as well as several other excellent follow up posts.  This is some of the best reporting I have seen yet out of the things hidden away in this stimulus bill.  So give New Creation Capital a follow here and on Twitter (@NewCreationCap) for more great stories.  

As a paralegal, I thought it would be prudent to offer my analysis of the text of the bill, as well as the spirit under which it was written.  

The text of the bill allows for the creation of a "digital dollar." 

Furthermore, Forbes just reported on the eThaler project, which has been working on an Ethereum-based ERC-1155 CBDC solution for Brazil, even months before we started becoming scared to handle cash.  Here's what Forbes has to say about eThaler:  

First conceived earlier this year, eThaler gets its name from the thaler, a silver coin used throughout Europe for hundreds of years, from which the word “dollar” is derived. A group of professionals from consulting firms Accenture and InfoSys and the Itau Bank in Brazil, have been working on the open-source project in their free time for the past six months to explore the future of central bank currency issued on a blockchain.

To read the Forbes article, click here.

The text of the stimulus bill sets aside funding for the development of a "Digital Dollar."  It uses terms like "electronic ledger," and other terms that are familiar to blockchain enthusiasts.  

However, it looks like it didn't make it into the text of the final bill, as Yahoo reports here.  

I tend do differ from the opinion offered by New Creation, though (the opinion that this is something that will only be temporary).  Each time there are major currency changes like this, they are supposed to be temporary.  Taking the US off of the Gold Standard was supposed to be temporary, and instead, the central banks debased the currency and hoarded all of the gold for themselves.  Even after WW1 and WW2, the gold standard was never implemented.  

Next, the debasing of silver from the currency was supposed to be similarly temporary.  They took silver out of the currency in 1965 (in the US) and never looked back.  

Thus, any major change to allow for a Digital Dollar will likely be permanent.  But will it be a CBDC?  Will it resemble blockchain ledgers or will it be something else entirely... 

What do you guys think?  Do you think that Coronavirus will be the stimulus (no pun intended there) that ushers in the CBDC known as the Digital Dollar?  

While it doesn't look like they will get the opportunity to sneak a CBDC into the stimulus bill, the language of the proposed Digital Dollar clause can give us an idea as to what is on lawmakers' minds.