Key Takeaways
- Jamaican central bank issues first batch of digital currency
- The digital currency has been in the works since 2020
- More countries turning to develop digital currencies
The Central Bank revealed this on August 10 and noted that the initial phase would be distributed to institutions and payment service providers. Jamaica has been rapid in the development of digital currency.
The country first announced plans for a digital currency in 2020 and has made extensive research on the legal, financial and fiscal aspects of the CBDC. The central bank onboarded Irish security firm eCurrency Mint as a collaborator, and the firm has developed the digital currency.
The central bank revealed that 230 million Jamaican dollars have been issued and allocated to institutions and payment service providers. It is understood that the pilot phase will continue until December.
The Jamaican government has been transparent with the entire process and recently held a competition to decide the digital currency's name and logo. A decision is expected to be made on the competition with the winner announced in the coming weeks.
Jamaican finance minister Nigel Clarke also recently noted that the government would propose bills to ensure the digital currency is properly implemented into law. It should be noted that the Jamaican digital currency is not built on blockchain.
This is a change from the norm, with most national digital currencies announced so far built on blockchain technology. Financial experts have quipped that this could be the reason for the Jamaican central bank's quick minting of new tokens.
Jamaica's development is expected to spur more countries towards developing their native digital currencies. It should be noted that Jamaica's Caribbean neighbor, the Bahamas was the first nation to launch its digital currency, "the sand dollar."
What do you think about Jamaica issuing its digital currency?
