Federal and Central Bank Currency May be on the Way

With the advent of FedNow, the U.S. Federal Reserve tossed around the idea of issuing a digital currency Oct. 2, according to a recent article in Reuters. Philadelphia Federal Reserve bank president Patrick Harker said during a community banking conference the implementation of a digital currency "is inevitable," but he does not want the U.S. to be the first country to experiment with digital currency.

Central banks and the Fed have been exploring what the rise of private cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin mean for an inevitable public cryptocurrency. This notion emerged on the heels of a question relating to FedNow, the government's real-time payment system set to launch in a handful of years.

The mood of the conference in relation to this comment was skeptical, according to Reuters. Many are unsure whether private cryptocurrencies will become large enough or act enough like true currencies for central banks and the Fed to regulate these alternative currencies.

—Christie Citranglo, editorial associate