US Representative Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) spoke at the School of Law on Tuesday about the Electronic Currency and Secure Hardware (ECASH) Act, which would develop an electronic version of the US dollar for use by the American public.

Cybersecurity

US Reps Stephen Lynch, Ayanna Pressley Tout ECASH Bill for Those Shut Out of Digital Transactions

Computing & Data Sciences faculty offer direction for design, privacy, and security at BU event

The United States needs an electronic currency to help those who are shut out of the digital economy even as the world goes cashless. And the BU Faculty of Computing &Data Sciences (CDS) has some ideas about how to make that happen safely, securely, and privately.

US Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and US Representative Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) visited the School of Law on Tuesday to discuss H.R. 7231, the Electronic Currency and Secure Hardware (ECASH) Act, which would develop an electronic version of the US dollar for use by the American public. 

Lynch introduced the bill after noting that the rapid worldwide trend toward cashless transactions could leave behind “a huge swath of the population,” especially the unbanked or underbanked, who are already unable to access financial services that many take for granted, as well as those in areas without reliable internet service.

We need a system “that can be used by people at the bottom of the economic ladder,” Lynch said. “We hope this bill will address many of the challenges we face as we move toward a cashless society.”

The ECASH Act would establish an electronic version of the US dollar for use by the American public that would retain many characteristics of physical currency—including anonymity, privacy, peer-to-peer transactions, and interoperability with existing financial systems. ECASH would be distributed to the public via secured hardware devices and be regulated the same as physical dollars; it would be subject to existing laws in areas like money laundering and transaction reporting.

Pressley said the danger is that as our society becomes cashless, it will leave behind people for whom cash transactions, check cashing services, and payday lenders are more common than debit cards or online banking. She noted that 10 percent of Boston households are unbanked, an additional 20 percent are underbanked, with limited or no access to ATM and credit cards, lines of credit, and the like. And these problems tend to fall along racial lines.

“There are still many communities that rely on cash, that need cash to buy their groceries, cash to pay their bills,” Pressley said. “As legislators, it is our job to come up with solutions that promote financial inclusion while safeguarding privacy and consumer protection, because if we do not, we are failing our most vulnerable communities.”

Pressley is one of four original cosponsors of Lynch’s bill; both are members of the House Financial Services Committee, where the bill is under discussion.

Lynch, chairman of the Committee’s Task Force on Financial Technology, also makes clear that ECASH has to be done right. Looking at early versions of central-bank e-currencies created in the Bahamas, Singapore, and China, among other places, he realized that maintaining privacy, anonymity, and security will not be easy. “In China,” he noted, “every transaction is subject to full spectrum surveillance.” And cryptocurrency and blockchain have hardly been free of problems.

He noted that when the government distributed COVID relief funding under the CARES Act, 75 percent of the fraud discovered came through online platforms—“a red flag.”

BU’s contribution comes in the form of ideas about implementation from three members of the CDS and another data scientist soon to join the faculty.

Allison McDonald, a CDS assistant professor working on security, privacy, and human-computer interaction, talked about the importance of including the target community in the design process. Computer scientists are still overwhelmingly white, male, and “not low-income,” she said.

“Harm happens when technologists aren’t thinking about how people use technology in the real world,” McDonald said. “One way to avoid these problems is to make sure that the people most impacted have a seat at the table through the entire process, not just as a check at the far end.”

Gabe Kaptchuk is a College of Arts & Sciences research assistant professor of computer science and a research development fellow at BU’s Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering. He discussed how easy it is for large data sets to get “hoovered up by surveillance systems” and ways that have been discovered to avoid that. He pointed to a process called secure multiparty computation, which allows transactions without either party revealing proprietary data.

Mayank Varia is a CDS associate professor of computing and data sciences and director of Hub for Civic Tech, the CDS initiative at the intersection of technology and the public interest. He discussed the importance of technology and the law working hand in hand.

And Eran Tromer laid out a series of steps Congress can take to help technologists create an ECASH that will work, including resolving ambiguities in laws and policies. Tromer, a computer scientist whose résumé includes stints at Columbia University and Tel Aviv University, is expected to begin faculty appointments at CAS in computer science and at the Questrom School of Business early next year. 

The audience of more than 60 at LAW’s Barristers Hall included University President Robert A. Brown and Angela Onwuachi-Willig, School of Law dean and Ryan Roth Gallo and Ernest J. Gallo Professor of Law, both of whom spoke briefly, and Azer Bestavros, associate provost for computing and data science and a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor, who moderated.

The Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences sponsored the event along with BU Federal Relations.