Accenture (NYSE: ACN) will provide initial funding for five pilot programs that the Digital Dollar Project intends to launch to explore potential use cases and future designs of a U.S. central bank digital currency.
The pilot programs will analyze and identify functional and technical requirements, evaluate benefits and challenges, look at use cases for wholesale and retail utilization and test approaches and applications, Accenture said Monday.
DDP plans to announce the first three pilots within the next two months and will share the programs’ findings and insights with academia and Congress for use in studies and policy consideration.
“Central bank digital currencies will play an important role in how we modernize our financial systems — increasing access to and inclusion within them while also providing a valuable innovation frontier for new products and services in conjunction with other key innovations such as digital identity,” said David Treat, a senior managing director at Accenture and blockchain and multiparty systems global lead.
“Accenture is excited to collaborate with the entire stakeholder community to learn from pilot programs across a range of use cases and share the outcomes and insights in an open and transparent manner,” Treat added.
The company also announced the appointment of Adrienne Harris, a senior adviser at Brunswick Group and a professor of the practice at the University of Michigan, to DDP’s executive board. Harris previously served as a senior adviser to the deputy secretary of the Department of the Treasury and a special assistant for economic policy on the National Economic Council during the Obama administration.
In January 2020, DDP was established by Accenture and the Digital Dollar Foundation, which is led by Christopher Giancarlo, former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Charles Giancarlo and Daniel Gorfine.
