Uruguay To Launch It’s Own Digital Currency

Uruguay In Process To Launch Its Very Own Digital Currency Which Simply Cannot Be Labelled As Bitcoins

Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU) has decided to impart a digital feather to the cap of its fiat currency – the Uruguayan peso starting from 3 November 2017. Started as a pilot endeavour, the banking head cautioned people stating that it “is not a cryptocurrency such as bitcoins,” but “a currency that remains the responsibility of the BCU.”

The South American nation sandwiched in between Argentina to its west and Brazil to its east has already started acting upon what Russia has proceeded with in just pen and paper. According to a press release, the bank has announced, “a six-month pilot plan for the issuance and use of digital notes of the Uruguayan peso.”

Also Read: Russia To Launch It’s Own Cryptocurrency – “CryptoRuble”

Named as El BCU presentó un plan piloto para la emisión de billetes digitales (which means a pilot plan aimed at the issuance of digital tickets), it emphasizes its roadmap as “a test plan with a view to evaluating whether or not it transforms into a way of doing business in the future.” The plan “consists of a test with 10,000 mobile phone users of ANTEL,” and the international release notes, “which will last for 6 months.”

Registered users can make use of the platform for interacting on a peer-to-peer mode with merchants spread across various money exchanges. However, Uruguayans “must download the application for phones from the epeso.com.uy website, access the digital wallet, register and make the first charge in Red Pagos to create the digital wallet (Cash In),” for taking part in the same. The bank also added that, “the mechanism is available for both smartphones and non-smartphones.” It should be noted here that Red Pagos is a payments and collection company of national acclaim in Uruguay.

The bank declared that, “the first issue of digital tickets consists of 20 million Uruguayan pesos, of which 7 million were already transferred to Red Pagos.” The Central Bank President was quoted as saying, “This is not a new currency, it is the same Uruguayan peso that instead of having a physical support has a technological support.”

Mario Bergara, the president also stressed upon the fact that, “it is expensive to print tickets, the distribution in the whole territory, the security for the transport of the same, and also the opacity that the physical ticket promotes,” while pointing out the real motive behind BCU’s increased efforts.

“Each person who has the app may have charged a cap equivalent to about $1,000, while companies will have available up to $6,600. The electronic wallet can be charged in a collection network where physical tickets will be exchanged for electronic tickets.” Mr. Bergara also states that in case the banking bodies decide to continue their tryst with the digital tokens for more than six months, physical money shall not be shut off immediately since, “for the comfort of all citizens, the transition will take a long time.”

The country is currently suffering from an acute economic downturn which not much long back produced ATM caps, cash shortages, bank runs and rampant inflation.

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