The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is looking for a crypto architect for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) project, an Indeed job posting reveals. According to the role description, the employee will work on CBDC research and development.
The position is full-time and hybrid, with an annual salary starting at $134,900, requiring candidates to have “knowledge of cryptographic protocols such as distributed systems implementation, hashing, public-private keypairs and signatures, consensus algorithms, and security.”
“Given the critical role of the dollar, FRS seeks to further understand the costs and benefits of CBDCs and potential technologies for this emerging sector,” the posting reads. According to the Federal Reserve System careers page, the position has been open for more than 30 days.
“We are looking for a Lead Application Developer to implement example systems related to CBDCs. You will engage directly with management, other developers on the team, development operations teams and vendors to ensure that the Federal Reserve is well positioned to design, develop and implement technology to support CBDCs, as may be required by the Board of Governors.”
A team of crypto developers has been forming at the Fed in San Francisco since at least February, when it was looking for a software engineer to help develop and implement systems related to the CBDC initiative.
The recruitment efforts run contrary to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors’ public stance on CBDCs. On July 19, the central bank said on Twitter that it has not yet decided whether to issue a CBDC and will “move forward to issue a CBDC only with an authorizing law.”
The prospect of a digital version of the US dollar has sparked controversy in the country, promising to be a major talking point in the upcoming presidential election. Many opponents of CBDCs argue that it threatens citizens’ privacy and could lead to government control, while supporters see it as a global application of blockchain technology.
At a recent event, presidential candidate and Florida governor Ron DeSantis vowed to ban CBDCs in the United States if elected president. “If I’m president, on day one we’ll end central bank digital currency. Complete. dead. That’s not happening in this country,” he said during the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa.