Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said 2022 will probable have the key bank engaging with the public and lawmakers regarding the digital dollar.

In a Firm Fiscal Services Committee hearing today, Powell responded to questions from Rep. Patrick McHenry, who said the digital dollar would likely face national and economic security issues for the United States. Powell said in that location were many concerns surrounding the project and the Fed intended to reach out to the public.

"This is going to be the year in which we appoint with the public pretty actively, including some public events that we're working on," he said. "In the concurrently, we're working on the technical challenges and also collaborating and sharing work with the other central banks around the earth that are doing this."

Powell added that the Fed needed to consider the health of other markets when creating a digital dollar, adding that the projection may need to get to lawmakers commencement:

"Nosotros could well need legislative authorization for such a thing. It isn't clear until we meet which mode we're going."

The Fed chair's remarks come on the heels of his appearance before the Senate Banking Committee yesterday, in which he said the Fed was "looking advisedly" at whether the U.S. should curl out a digital dollar, but also that it was unlikely for stablecoins and digital currencies to affect monetary policy transmission. President of the Dallas Federal Reserve Robert Kaplan has also said that information technology is "critical that the Fed focuses on developing a digital currency."

In the meantime, the Federal Reserve faced some other technical challenge today, every bit well-nigh all of the services information technology provides through its online portal went offline for more than an hour. At the fourth dimension of publication, all Federal Reserve Depository financial institution Services with the exception of Account Services are at present back online.