When Will We See the Digital Dollar? 'Crypto Dad' Says Soon

Former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo, aka "Crypto Dad," sees the current set of financial systems – the older systems associated with the pre-digital age – as hopelessly obsolete. He aims to fix them.

“During my five years at the commission we saw this sort of new wave of the digitization of our world that's taking place,” he said. “The first wave was the digitization of information, and that's created the Internet as we know it today. But we’re seeing what some people call the digitization of value, or the or the Internet of value.” 

Giancarlo recently called for the creation of the digital dollar and is working with former LabCFTC head Daniel Gorfine to experiment and ultimately ship a framework for a truly digital version of the currency.

“I've been also thinking a lot about how so much of our physical infrastructure – our bridges, our tunnels, our airports – have been allowed to age and decay. They were state of the art in the fifties and sixties. They are well past their sell-by day today,” he said. “So much of our financial infrastructure has also been allowed to age and decay and not been modernized.”

Since leaving the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Giancarlo has joined the Chamber of Digital Commerce as an advisor and also joined the board of the American Financial Exchange. During his time with the CFTC, Giancarlo called for a lighter regulatory approach when it came to cryptocurrencies.

Now, sitting down with CoinDesk's Michael Casey at the LATOKEN Blockchain Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the former chairman is ready to expand the definition of digital currencies in the United States.