Well, DollarCoin actually.
I've been listening to Seventh Sense by Joshua Cooper Ramo. Previously he was foreign editor at Time magazine, and is vice president and co-chief exec of Kissinger Associates, so he seems to well placed to speak for (or at least to) US political and business elites. The book is thought provoking, the key message is that the speed and ubiquity of networks is changing the structure of society faster than existing centers of power can cope with. The remedy that he refers to he calls "gatelands", basically closing borders, and networks of all sorts, and keeping tighter control on who is in or out of them, while making best use of the power of networks within them. Since listening I expect we will see the internet begin to fragment significantly in the next few years, along the lines of GeoIP restrictions which are already so widespread. Bitcoin is referred to throughout the book, as one of the examples of the new networked world taking the old one by surprise. I've an abridged extract of his conclusions on digital currency below - it's not encouraging, but not that threatening.
Today the most talked about model for an all digital currency is bitcoin, a system based on the algorithmic creation of money, mined from computation much like gold was once mined from the hills of California. Bitcoin's most appealing property is that it is not controlled by any government, it is meant to be free from political pressure, from the influence of central bankers, and the risk of national default. Bitcoin can be used anonymously, attracting druglords, tax evaders and bred a bitcoin black market economy.
Bitcoin, or something like it will have a role in future, but another kind of currency will appear too. This currency, instead of being anonymous, backed only by algorithms, and unlinked to any government as Bitcoin is, would be built for reliability, not mystery, ... transparent, traceable, backed by a major government and tied intimately to policy and credit. Imagine if the united states began to issue bitdollars, backed by the security of the United States.
Because its connected to a database, a BitDollar can be earmarked for specific purposes... foreign aid processed digitally could be traced and watched, it could be easily updated based on commodity prices and demand ... it will be a gateland.
What sort of digital currency will it be ... finance of the future will be filled with gatelands to make transactions safer, more reliable and to fit currency more tightly to policy. Control of such currency will be a source of real power, and a place of certain competition. It will be possible who is in or out of
such a system instantly - locking out Russian oligarchs and locking in Aid workers.
The country should... introduce bitdollars just as China has introduced it's own digital currency.
Any thoughts? Has this been mentioned here before, or are there any other signs that the US has plans to set up a digital currency learning lessons from Bitcoin?