Contrary to the authoritative stand on the anonymity of cryptocurrencies, the chairman of the federal reserve, Jerome Hayden Powell came out citing nothing short of positive sentiments in favour of privacy coins. This was all recorded in a recently held House of Representatives committee meeting on the prosperity of future financial services.
In the federal meeting, he expressed to the members that the agency is tirelessly working to ensure all seams are perfectly aligned with the sole motive behind their efforts being to digitize the dollar in the not so distant future.
This whole agenda was prompted by Facebook’s plan to release its very own digital smart coin, Libra. This discussion has been open for a while now. Away from the country’s plan to digitize its currency, he also went on to declare that he supports privacy and digital currencies.
He said that the American government has no interest in having a record of its citizens’ cryptocurrency payments. Jerome Powells’ stance on cryptocurrencies is a complete flip-around from Trump’s administration outright lack of confidence in the digital currencies.
Just a few months before the committee meeting, the American treasury secretary, Stephen Mnuchin, had quite a negative bulk to say with regards to the elusive digital currencies.
In his statement, he said that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are leveraged by online crooks to support billions of dollars worth of illegal activities. They include tax evasion, illicit drug trade, fraud, hacking activities and much more.
After such remarks from the government, it would only have been fair to assume that the relevant agencies would follow suit with this ideological standpoint. The unprecedented nature of the federal reserve chairman indicates that they might not be in full support of the governments’ policy to disband digital currency activity in the country.
The main reason for developing private digital payment systems has always been independent and private. They are basically a way in which people can, in a sense, be in control of their money.
Various authorities have however expressed a similar distaste for the innovation as that displayed by the American treasury secretary, branding them unconstitutional and ill intentioned. This is evidenced by the Dutch government’s decision to implement a licensing system that completely disables transactions by anonymous cryptocurrencies in a recently published BeInCrypto report.
It is evident that there is a disparity between the statements issued by the federal reserve chairman and the state but given the country’s predisposition towards national surveillance, more light still needs to be shed with regards to Jerome Powell’s remarks.
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