FDIC vice chair Travis Hill did not spare his own agency in his assessment of current digital asset regulation.
Bank customers and the United States economy could lose opportunities if a poor approach is taken to regulating blockchain technology, U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) vice chair Travis Hill told an audience at the Mercatus Center think tank on March 11. The United States is already at risk, Hill said, and the FDIC shares the blame for that.
Tokenization of bank deposits and other real-world assets (RWA) could make it possible to carry out financial transaction at any time with real-time settlement, Hill said. In addition, it would provide programmability of payments, making it possible to conduct intraday repurchase (repo) exchanges and improve settlement times for some bond issuances and numerous other transactions. Consumers could also benefit from using programmable payments in place of escrow.
Among the many open questions about tokenization, Hill mentioned the use, or not, of unified ledgers, blockchain interoperability and ownership rights as assets move along the blockchain. Furthermore:
