Ron Paul Tackles Federal Reserve’s New Anti-Crypto Payment System
Coinspeaker
Ron Paul Tackles Federal Reserve’s New Anti-Crypto Payment System
As the cryptocurrency sector develops and expands comparatively steadily, there are renewed calls from several quarters interested in stifling its growth for one reason or another. Former Texas Senator, Ron Paul, has now referred to the newly announced “FedNow” as an anti-crypto agenda.
Recently, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced that it had begun development of a new instant payment system called FedNow. The announcement described FedNow as “a new round-the-clock real-time payment, and settlement service…to support faster payments in the United States.” As Lael Brainard, the Federal Reserve Board Governor, noted:
“Everyone deserves the same ability to make and receive payments immediately and securely, and everybody deserves the same opportunity to offer the service to its community. FedNow will permit banks of every size in every community across the country to provide real-time payments to their customers.”
Ron Paul Doesn’t See the Need
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his dislike for the Federal Reserve, describing it and its chairman Jerome Powell as “clueless”. Now, Ron Paul might be sharing the same sentiment but not exactly for the same reasons. Paul, who is also the chairman of the Campaign for Liberty organisation released a statement on FedNow, suggesting that there’s simply no need as there are many other available alternatives. This feeds into his assumption that the Federal Reserve moving forward to do something like this can only be interpreted as an anti-crypto move.
He stated:
“Consumers already have numerous options to make real-time payments, so the Federal Reserve’s decision to begin work on a Central Bank-run and controlled real payment system – what Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow John Berlay calls “FedNow” – is baffling.”
The Federal Reserve and Crypto
If this is a move to cripple the cryptocurrency sector, then it might make sense to agree that the sector is slowly becoming a problem for decentralized authority. The technological efficiency, effectiveness and advancement being displayed by crypto especially through blockchain technology, is likely unsettling for traditional financial systems.
Paul further explained that the creation of a new payment system by the Federal Reserve while being advantageous for the authorities is a bad idea for the people.
“A Federal Reserve-run, real payments system, will crowd out private alternatives, leaving consumers with one government-run option for real-time payments. This will be bad for consumers and real-time entrepreneurs but good for power-hungry Federal Reserve bureaucrats who will no doubt use FedNow to help “protect” the Federal Reserve’s fiat currency system from competition from cryptocurrencies,” said he.
Even though FedNow will not be available until 2023 or 2024, it has already ruffled a few feathers, most of which are crypto enthusiasts.
Can FedNow Really Disrupt Crypto?
Cal Evans, the founder of a compliance outfit Gresham International, has already downplayed the likelihood of FedNow being serious competition for crypto. Evans believes that the authorities have been putting down the sector for a long time and now that it has survived and is still surviving, FedNow is “simply their attempt to play catch up” since they can not now create their own crypto system.
It is unlikely that FedNow will ever run as efficiently and seamlessly as the blockchain technology system cryptocurrency is built on. Even if that happens by some miracle, crypto presents a decentralized system, something no enthusiast will abandon for FedNow.
Ron Paul Tackles Federal Reserve’s New Anti-Crypto Payment System
OhNoCrypto
via https://www.ohnocrypto.com
Tolu Ajiboye, Khareem Sudlow
