Recently, the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the Bahamas announced the launch of a pilot for a national digital currency by the Central Bank. The Minister of Finance, K. Peter Turnquest, hopes that The Bahamas will become a digital and technological paradise. The Minister added that The production of a modern, fully digital payment service is the way forward for this era of our government. A digital currency from the Bahamas is
important for many Islands, as they have seen many commercial banks shrink their size and withdraw from their communities, leaving them without banking services. The digitization of our governmental and financial services complements our facility to make business initiatives and our digital framework.

Authorities believe that the use of this technology, will make it possible to obtain greater efficiency for the islands while at the same time reducing the levels of corruption. Turnquest mentioned that by using technology and unique points of contact, the Bahamas can eliminate much of the human element that facilitates corruption, so when talking about requesting government services, if there is a single portal of entry and all the processing is
done either through the electronic data exchange or through process optimization, they can eliminate that risk factor.

All this comes in the midst of a series of international movements regarding the issue of
regional and national currencies, in order to eliminate factors of danger in terms of acts
of cybercrime and legal gaps. Entities like the Central Bank of the United Kingdom, recently announced that they are evaluating the possibility of issuing their own cryptocurrency. Similarly, Switzerland is studying the possibilities as well.

 

by Samuel Paz

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