As the world knows, most central banks in the developed world are investigating the benefits and risks of issuing digital currency. While the bulk of transactions is already handled electronically today, the thesis is that by incorporating new technology, a digital currency – or digital dollar in this case – can remove intrinsic friction and perhaps create more benefits. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDCs) are already in use in China, and the US Federal Reserve is working with MIT to research the potential. Last year, the Fed revealed a test that delivered a platform capable of handling 1.7 million transactions per second.
Recently, several job offerings popped up on the Federal Reserve’s job portal as it pushes forward with the project. The Fed is looking for developers and engineers to work on the project. To quote a job listing:
“As part of the Federal Reserve’s mission to promote accessible, safe, and efficient systems to facilitate dollar transactions, the Federal Reserve System seeks a senior technologist to perform central bank digital currency research and development. Given the dollar’s important role, Federal Reserve System seeks to further understand the cost and benefits of the potential technologies for central bank digital currencies, and how the system better understand this emerging field.
This position is a unique opportunity to be part of a team on the leading edge of technology research into central bank digital currency. You’ll join a world-class team in a dynamic environment that has the feel of a start-up. As a Senior DevOps Engineer you will help to deploy, manage, fix, and reinvent the tools, services, and components that our team relies on to develop our CBDC research infrastructure and keep it operational.”
The positions appear to be mainly in San Francisco and Boston.
The Fed has not made any decision as to whether or not it will move forward, and the current Fed Chair has indicated it could evolve that privately issued digital dollars exist alongside government-issued CBDC.
A top concern is one of privacy. While the federal government may claim it will respect individual privacy, we all know that Fed creep happens all of the time.
