David Rutter’s comments come in response to Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, who promised to ban the digital dollar if he wins the upcoming election. DeSantis is convinced that CBDCs pose a threat to the personal economic freedom and privacy of citizens.
However, according to Rutter, state stablecoins are not evil at all, and DeSantis is simply “inciting fear”, gaining votes in this way. Money has already become digital, and state-owned cryptocurrencies are only taking them to a new level. The head of R3 is confident that the digital dollar is unlikely to become a government tool for large-scale surveillance of citizens’ money spending, which DeSantis and his fellow skeptics are so afraid of.
Rutter explained that corporations and tax authorities are already collecting and analyzing data on citizens’ spending through smartphone payments and e-commerce. Therefore, the CBDC will not be very different from the practice that the authorities already use to track funds. For example, banks and credit unions have long been required to report transactions above $10,000 to the federal government.
“Governments control payments in a variety of ways. The anti-money laundering regulations contain provisions on how banks track transactions,” Rutter said.
He suggested that users of the digital dollar would still be able to make anonymous transactions with it without government oversight, within the established limit. Rutter expects US authorities and other governments to find ways to protect people’s privacy.
Recently, US Congressman Warren Davidson also spoke out against the digital dollar. He compared it to the financial equivalent of the Death Star, the fictional Star Wars space station.
Source: Bits
I am an experienced journalist, writer, and editor with a passion for finance and business news. I have been working in the journalism field for over 6 years, covering a variety of topics from finance to technology. As an author at World Stock Market, I specialize in finance business-related topics.
