US lawmakers introduce ECASH Act to develop electronic dollar

U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., introduced the Electronic Currency and Secure Hardware Act. The ECASH Act would establish a pilot program within the U.S. Treasury Department to test and develop an electronic U.S. dollar. Hardware “authorized” to hold or “facilitate transactions involving e-cash" would be “secured locally via cryptographic encryption” and would not be subject to "surveillance, personal identification or transactional data-gathering.” The pilot would be overseen by a Monetary Privacy Board. The bill is cosponsored by Reps. Jesús García, D-IL., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Alma Adams, D-NC.