The Bahamas is looking to release its state digital currency sooner than any other country is. According to reports, The Bahamas has revealed its plans to launch the central bank digital currency (CBDC) before the end of October.
The currency, called ‘Sand Dollars’, will be available everywhere in the country. This, the country hopes, will improve the rate of financial inclusion as it will reach some of the remote islands of the archipelago.
Speaking to Bloomberg, the esolutions assistant manager of the Central Bank of The Bahamas, Chaozhen Chen, specified that the Central Bank had to tackle financial inclusion, as residents of these distant islands were a little too left out:
“A lot of residents in those more remote islands don’t have access to digital payment infrastructure or banking infrastructure. We really had to customize the effort and the solution to what we need as a sovereign nation.”
According to Bloomberg, there is only about $48,000 worth of Sand Dollars on the Central Bank of the Bahamas’ balance sheet. Since the Sand Dollar is valued at 1-to-1 with the usual Bahamian dollar, the spread of the currency to these remote areas may be slow. Regardless, the launch will put The Bahamas far ahead all other countries currently working on a CBDC.
Image Credits: Pixabay
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