兰德-中央银行数字货币设计选择及其对执法的影响（英）-2025.4_51页_642kb

Summary

This report analyzes the potential impacts of a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC) on law enforcement investigative capabilities, specifically focusing on financial investigations. The analysis leverages expert interviews and a scenario-based workshop to explore how CBDC design choices might affect law enforcement tasks such as tracing flows, identifying criminals, and freezing/seizing assets.

Key Findings:

• A U.S. CBDC design could significantly impact law enforcement efforts in financial investigations, particularly concerning privacy (identity and transaction), intermediation, ledger history, transaction programmability, offline capabilities, secure hardware, and cryptography.
• While a U.S. CBDC is likely an evolutionary step rather than a revolutionary one, existing law enforcement techniques may need to adapt (e.g., incorporating new analytical tools, specialized training) rather than being replaced entirely.
• Federal law enforcement agencies are expected to play a central role in investigating CBDC-related criminal activities due to their experience and technical capabilities.
• CBDCs present unique interactions between policy and technology, creating dynamic threats and privacy concerns.

Recommendations:

1. DHS Support: DHS should prepare to provide financial and technical support (e.g., analytical tools, reporting systems, education) to local law enforcement to address challenges arising from CBDC adoption.
2. Criminal Adaptation Analysis: Further analysis is needed to assess how a U.S. CBDC might influence criminal activities, including potential new opportunities for illicit actors.
3. Privacy Impact Assessment: Federal law enforcement agencies should collaborate on a privacy impact assessment for a U.S. CBDC to balance individual privacy with lawful access during investigations.

Design Impact: High identity/transaction privacy (type), lack of intermediation, shortage of ledger history, and transaction programmability could increase the effort required for law enforcement. New techniques like advanced analytics, smart contract analysis, and streamlined asset recovery may become necessary. However, aspects like offline compatibility, secure hardware, and cryptography are deemed less critical in law enforcement terms.