By Shelly Melancon (Switzerland)
Malaysia has become the latest country to join in the exploration and research of its CBDC. The country’s top financial regulator Bank Negra Malaysia, revealed on Monday that while it is yet to determine the next move for the digitized currency, it has completed its research using proof-of-concept to improve the technical abilities and policies.
According to BNM, the reason for the PoC research was to prepare for the launch of its digitized currency should there be any need to launch it in the future. Recall that last year, Malaysia joined forces with South Africa, Singapore, and Australia to launch a PoC CBDC pilot.
The pilot, also called Project Dunbar, used Corda and Quorum blockchain networks to experiment the use case of CBDC, which is making cross-border payments and remittances. More importantly, it demonstrated how blockchain could cut out middlemen and reduce time and transaction costs.
China Leads in CBDC Implementation
Several nations have opted to experiment with their digitized currencies within their jurisdiction ever since the subject graced the headlines. Amongst these countries are Singapore, Bahrain, Brazil, Australia, India, etc. China is the leading country in this aspect with its Digital Yuan.
China, a country known for FUDs and dislike for cryptocurrency, became the first country to launch a CBDC program in 2014, even before mainstream countries started discussing it. By far, it’s the largest country executing it, with the CBDC mobile app already crossing 20M downloads since the beginning of January.
The figure isn’t much of a surprise given China’s blanket ban on crypto last September. The plan was to force cryptocurrency out of the country and pave the way for the adoption of e-CNY. The Southeast nation plans to fully launch the program to allow tourists to have access to the CBDC when the Winter Olympics begins.
The Caribbean Region Also Adopts CBDC
Aside from China, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank has also launched its digitized currency EC dollar. This will allow the eight countries in the Caribbean region to use the CBDC for the payment of goods across borders. Dominican Republic and Montserrat were the latest countries in the region to receive the rollout, leaving Antigua as the only country yet to adopt the EC dollar.
Meanwhile Jamaica will launch the final testing of its CBDC before Q1 ends. This comes after the country concluded its pilot program two weeks ago.
The European Union is on the verge of launching its CBDC as well. However, it will have to conduct some research for two years to identify the potential benefits and risks of adopting it similar to what other countries are doing.
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