IN PICS | India Set To Launch Digital Rupee. Here Are Other Countries With Their Own CBDC

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is all set to launch the pilot of the Digital Rupee on Tuesday, November 1. As per RBI, the e₹-W (wholesale) use case for this pilot is the settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities. RBI further said the first pilot in Digital Rupee - Retail segment (e₹-R) is planned for launch within a month in select locations in closed user groups comprising customers and merchants.[Image Credit: Getty]

The Bahamas was the first country to launch CBDC which covered the entire nation. After a successful 2019 pilot on the island conglomeration of Exuma in October, 2020 the Central Bank of the Bahamas issued the Sand Dollar. The main goals of the Sand Dollar was to modernise and streamline the island country's financial system, reduce service delivery costs, increase transactional efficiency and improve financial inclusion, according to CBDC Tracker.[Image Credit: Getty]

In October 2021, Nigeria became the first African country and Second country worldwide to establish a CBDC, eNaira. The eNaira can be kept in a digital wallet and used for in-store payments as well as money transfers. Like coins or cash, the eNaira is a liability of the CBN. The eNaira uses the same blockchain technology as Bitcoin or Ethereum. There are, however, important differences. The eNaira features stringent access right controls by the central bank and unlike crypto-assets, the eNaira is not a financial asset in itself but a digital form of a national currency and draws its value from the physical naira, according to an IMF report.[Image Credit: Getty]

The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) launched its DXCDCaribe pilot 12 March 12, 2019. ‘D’, representing digital, is prefixed to ‘XCD’ - the international currency code for the EC dollar. Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines are the seven countries. The pilot involved a securely minted and issued digital version of the EC dollar - DCash However on January 14, the DCash suffered some “interruption” after which the Bank stopped all transactions.[Image Credit: Getty]

In February 2022, the Bank of Russia announced that it had completed initial trials of the CBDC, also known as the “Digital Ruble”. Bank of Russia has plans to unveil the digital ruble in the next couple of years. Russia’s latest monetary policy update stated that the authority will begin to connect all banks and credit institutions to the digital ruble platform in 2024. [Image Credit: Getty]

Sweden is also testing a digital currency called e-krona. Sweden’s central bank has said that Up to now, the e-krona pilot has only been simulated within the Riksbank, but will be broadened to include participants like commercial banks in the next phase of the project.[Image Credit: Getty]

In April 2020, China launched its first digital currency, e-CNY. The People's Bank of China wants the e-CNY, or digital yuan, to be widely used in China by 2022. On September 19, 2022, the People’s Bank of China said that the digital yuan trial program will gradually be expanded to the whole of Guangdong, Sichuan, Hebei, and Jiangsu – the provinces in which the first four trial cities are located.[Image Credit: Getty]

In the US, CBDC is under research status, according to the Atlantic Council. In March 2022, the Joe Biden administration signed an Executive Order to promote responsible innovation in the field of digital assets. According to the US Fed, a CBDC would offer refuge from this shambolic state of affairs by providing a form of digital money that’s a direct liability of the Fed, firmly bootstrapped to the U.S. dollar and government, as opposed to an offshore, flash-in-the-pan startup that might lie, cheat, steal, implode, or pull a midnight runner.[Image Credit: Getty]

The Central Bank of Pakistan has reportedly announced it will issue a digital currency by 2025. The Pakistan State Bank’s Deputy Governor Jameel Ahmad has said that the central bank was currently working on a concept of issuing digital currency by year 2025 to promote financial inclusion and reduce inefficiency and corruption.[Image Credit: Getty]

On September 22 this year, Iran’s central bank said that it is planning to launch a pilot “digital rial” project in the coming days.The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) said in an official press release that the aim of introducing the crypto rial is to turn banknotes into a programmable entry. Security is also a prime factor when it comes to the design of the crypto rial, as per CBI. [Image Credit: Getty]