A few days after the Central Bank of the Bahamas’ launched the Sand Dollar, recent reports reveal a new such launch, this time coming from the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank. Located in the country of Saint Christopher and Nevis, the ECCB went live with its central bank digital currency DCash on Wednesday, thus becoming the second central bank to take this step.
Regarding CBDCs, Agustín Carstens, the general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, said that they could minimize some of the “long-term” issues found in the payments sector.
What makes this CBDC event worthy of attention, besides being among the first ones of this type, is that the ECCB’s DCash is the first example of a central bank within a currency union to launch a CBDC.
A currency union refers to an intergovernmental agreement that involves two or more states that share the same currency. The said countries agree to keep the same currency or maintain similar currency prices.
Although the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union includes eight nations, only four of them will have the possibility to use the DCash, namely Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and St. Kitts and Nevis.
In an effort “to increase financial inclusion, competitiveness and resilience for the people of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union,” the ECCB partnered with Bitt Inc for the development of the DCash.
The integration of the DCash into the financial systems of the four pilot countries is planned for the next year. Plus, the other four members of the ECCU will be incorporated into the DCash ecosystem during the same time frame.
The CBDC can be used for e-commerce, business-to-business, consumer, and internal cash management via the DCash Merchant App.
Source: Theblockcrypto.com