While countries worldwide are incorporating crypto, most of them are pushing out for their own CBDC. Recently, the Jamaican Central Bank has completed the pilot test of their own CBDC.
For those who don’t know, Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is a type of crypto under the control of the country’s premier financial institution. In most cases, the country’s central bank will manage and keep check of this new technology.
The Bank of Jamaica has completed an eight-month test run that commenced on May 2021. However, in their recent statement, they’ve revealed that only one institution participated in the pilot.
“The scope of the CBDC pilot was limited to wallet providers who indicated their readiness to participate within the scheduled timeframe. National Commercial Bank [NCB] based on the extent of their experience in the Sandbox came onboard with BOJ to test the range of services to be offered using the CBDC solution.“
Besides this, they also talked about the project’s success and if it could work alongside the “attendant technology solution”.
The statement revealed three more exciting details. Firstly, the test consisted of minting $230 million worth of CBDC. Then, after issuing, all this went to deposit-taking institutions and authorized payment service providers. Following that, on 9th August, the Bank of Jamaica issued $1 million worth of CBDC to the bank’s staff.
Post that, the NCB received $5 million worth of CBDC. Finally, NCB “successfully onboarded 57 customers which included 4 small merchants and 53 consumers.”
It is expected that the national rollout of the CBDC will happen in the first quarter of 2022.
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