Did… the US government just agree to start funding a cryptocurrency?

In a historic move, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Monday that the Fed is open to collaboration with private companies on creating a digital U.S. dollar. Could this be an official cryptocurrency?

Not quite yet. While Powell made it clear that the United States government was not committed to launching a cryptocurrency, he made note of projects like Facebook’s Libra, which have moved central banks to take a closer look at the digital currency space. The Federal Reserve chairman also pointed out that there would be tough policy and operational questions regarding a digital dollar, including monetary policy limitations. He also mentioned that cyber-attacks and illegal activity were a concern.

“We will have lots of conversations with industry and stakeholder engagement, and that’ll help us in our work on digital currencies and cross-border payments,” Powell said in an International Monetary Fund panel, “I actually do think this is one of those issues where it’s more important for the United States to get it right than it is to be first.”

Real-time payments have been an issue for the Fed, as the US lags behind other countries in the space. Mexico launched Cobro Digital that allows users and merchants to make online transactions in digital pesos last year, and China has started testing on a digital renminbi. The Bahamas is the latest country to join the digital fray, announcing on Tuesday that they would be rolling out a nationwide digital currency sometime this month.

Although the Fed won’t commit to a digital dollar at the moment, they are full steam ahead on shoring up real-time payments. The Fed hopes to stand up its FedNow system to allow around the clock real-time payments by 2024 at the latest. So far that project still seems to be running on time according to those who are involved.

Despite the Fed’s non-committal answer, a digital US dollar seems all but inevitable. This past January a survey of 60 central banks conducted by the Bank of International Settlements found that 80% of central banks were doing work on their own digital currencies. That being said, only 10% of the banks surveyed believed they would issue a digital currency in the short-term, and 20% said they planned to release something in the medium term.

When an official US cryptocurrency will hit the market is anyone’s guess, but don’t throw away those greenbacks just yet. As Powell emphasized in his statements, any digital dollar would serve as a complement to physical cash, not a replacement.

“Unlike some jurisdictions, here in the United States we continue to see strong demand for cash,” Powell said, “We think it’s important that any potential CBDC would serve as a complement to, and not a replacement for, cash and current private sector digital forms of the dollar such as commercial bank money.”