More than half of transactions in the US involved cash in 2010. The number had dropped to 28% in 2020, even before Covid, which led to wider adoption of cashless and contactless payment among businesses.
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The Fed’s digital dollar could bring millions into the digital economy
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Going cashless means a heavier reliance on private companies—banks, credit card companies, payment processors—all of which have delays and fees that hit poor people hardest. At the moment, a cash-free economy would exclude the 7.1 million Americans, or 5.4% of US households, that are unbanked, meaning they do not have a checking or savings account at a bank or credit union, according to the FDIC. That has the US Federal Reserve thinking about backing its own digital version of cash. A Fed-backed digital dollar would in theory function like cash—without delays, processing fees, or onboarding requirements—and could usher unbanked or underbanked Americans into the digital economy. Citizens could send cash digitally to one another or swipe a government debit card to pay, and that money would live in a Fed-backed wallet outside of the private banking system.
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