Federal Reserve of San Francisco hiring crypto architect for CBDC project

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is seeking a crypto architect for a central bank digital currency project, an Indeed job posting has revealed. According to the job description, the employee will work in CBDC research and development.

The position is full-time and hybrid, with an annual salary starting at $134,900 and requires candidates to have "knowledge of implementing distributed systems, cryptographic protocols such as hashing, public-private key pairs and signing, consensus algorithms, and security."

“Given the important role of the dollar, the FRS seeks to better understand the cost and benefits of potential technologies for CBDC and this emerging field,” the post read. 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 a CBDC. He will liaise directly with management, other developers on the team, development operations teams, and vendors to ensure the Federal Reserve is well positioned to design, develop, and deploy technology to support a CBDC as required by the Board of Governors."

A team of cryptocurrency developers has been forming at the San Francisco Federal Reserve since at least February, when started looking for a software engineer to help develop and implement systems related to a CBDC initiative.

The recruiting efforts contradict the public stance of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors on CBDCs. On July 19, the central bank said on Twitter that there was still no decided whether to issue a CBDC and "it would only proceed with the issuance of a CBDC with an enabling law."

The possibility of a digital version of the US dollar has generated controversy in the country and promises to be a key talking point in the upcoming presidential elections. Many opponents of CBDC argue that it threatens the privacy of citizens and could lead to government control, while supporters see it as a global application of blockchain technology.

In a recent event, presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vowed to ban CBDCs in the United States if he is elected president. “If I am the president, from day one, we will ban the central bank digital currency. Made. Dead. It's not happening in this country,” he said during the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa.