The Central Bank of The Bahamas has issued a statement, according to which, it will introduce a digital version of the Bahamian dollar, starting with a pilot phase in Exuma in December 2019, and extending in the first half of 2020 to Abaco.
This project is called the Project Sand Dollar. The issue of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) is a continuation of the Bahamian Payments System Modernization Initiative (PSMI), which began in the early 2000s, the official statement claims.
The main goal of the upcoming CBDC is reportedly to make the domestic electronic payments more efficient and non-discriminatory in access to financial services.
"As recent policy and regulatory reforms have begun to tackle these barriers, the Central Bank is intent on accelerating payments system reform, admitting new categories of financial services providers and using the digital payments infrastructure to make the supply of traditional banking services accessible to all segments of the population," the bank said.
Previously iHodl reported that the Central Bank of China, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), announced its CBDC is ready for launch and it won't be a speculative asset like bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin).
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