A CBDC Would Not Be Money in the Sense Used in the Constitution

The latest fad in monetary policy circles worldwide is CBDC or Central Bank Digital Currency, a government-created cryptocurrency exchanged on a blockchain. Many fear that it would give governments complete control over individuals by allowing them to track, and even block, individual transactions and to impose taxes at will.

In the United States, though, “money” has a constitutional basis so firm that, despite its name, a US government CBDC would not be “money” or even “currency.” It could exist as one payment system among many, but without violating the US Constitution it could not be forced on Americans as the sole final means of payment.

The term “currency” never appears in the Constitution but its root, “current,” appears once, noted in SMALL CAPS below.