If our US dollars were automatically converted to CBDC and Ecuador didn’t switch to CBDC how would that affect permanent residents?
I’m guessing that the larger banks here would allow us to convert our CBDC to Ecuador’s currency (USD). But that would defeat one of the features of CBDC — i.e., control the quantity of certain items that we can purchase (e.g., meat), etc.
I’m guessing it wouldn’t matter if we used a US or Ecuador address with the SSA, IRS, etc. Anyone have any thoughts on this? I know the current admin says they’re opposed to CBDC, but that could change. And future administrations may have different plans.
Chris
City: Cuenca
Editor’s Note:
CBDC refers to a Central Bank Digital Currency—a digital form of a country’s official currency issued by its central bank. In the U.S., this would mean a digital version of the dollar issued by the Federal Reserve.
At present, the United States has not implemented a CBDC, and there are no announced plans to convert existing U.S. dollars into a digital-only form. Most discussions around CBDCs remain at the research or exploratory stage.
For expats in Ecuador—which uses the U.S. dollar as its official currency—any future changes of this kind would depend on decisions made at both the U.S. and Ecuador government levels. At this time, there is no immediate impact on daily financial life.