Cambodia, China, Ukraine, and Uruguay are other countries that have progressed successfully in this area. The currency of the central bank of Thailand is the most developed when it comes to institutional usage.
According to a report published by the professional consulting firm PwC, the most advanced central bank digital currency (CBDC) is that of the Bahamas. This conclusion came to light because of its availability to the public in general. Cambodia and China are second and third in the world rankings.
The top 10 countries that have developed this type of project the most are Ukraine, Uruguay, Ecuador, Eastern Caribbean States, Sweden, South Korea, and Turkey. The variables to qualify them were the status of the project, the central bank’s position, and the public interest, among others.
The report, called PwC Global CBDC Index 2021 (1st Edition), highlights that the wallet for the Bahamian Sand Dollar has been available to the public since last year. It can be helpful through a cell phone application or a physical payment card.
On the other hand, China is still running the testing phase, even though this Asian giant is the country with more knowledge in this area. There is still no approximate date for the official launch of the CBDC, even though more than 2 billion yuan (the US $ 300 million) went as an inversion in the tests.
In South American countries, the CBDC of Ecuador is inactive, although it came to light in 2015 under the name Electronic Money System (SDE). The initiative was a failure due to the lack of trust the users perceived in it. By 2018, it faced a replacement by another digital payment system called BIMO.
For its part, Uruguay conducted tests between 2017 and 2018, but not using blockchain technology, but rather a centralized alternative. However, the transactions were anonymous, and the banks did not participate.
However, the consideration went only for institutional development for transactions between banks and other agencies, the most developed CBDC is Thailand, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore.
The remaining top 10 are Canada, the United Kingdom, France, South Africa, Europe, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan.
These Projects Focuses its Efforts on Blockchain Technology
One of the technical issues highlighted in the report is that 88% of these projects aim for blockchain technology. However, this blockchain is centralized, so privacy is not a guarantee as in traditional cryptocurrencies.
CBDCs are digital versions of fiat money and receive a back-up from a central bank, as presented to the Sand Dollar project at the time. According to PwC, more than 60 countries worldwide are into a research mode to find possible applications and benefits.
Henri Arslanian, partner and cryptocurrency benchmark at PwC, said that the general public would be “one of the main beneficiaries of CBDCs, as they will give them access to a digital form of central bank money for the first time.”
By: Jenson Nuñez
