Cryptocurrencies issued by central banks are again a little closer. The Central Bank of Jamaica has announced that it will launch its own digital currency, the so-called CBDC, during the first quarter of this year.
Jamaica has completed an eight-month pilot test run of CBDC (central bank digital currency), which ended at the end of last year. The Bank of Jamaica has announced that it will gradually start issuing its own digital currency during the first quarter of 2022.
The Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Jamaica, Natalie Haynes, justified the introduction of the digital currency, among other things, on the grounds that the majority of Jamaica’s population is “financially excluded”. It is the digital currency issued by the central bank that is supposed to change this situation. According to the Jamaican Prime Minister, around 70 percent of Jamaicans will use the digital currency within five years.
The gradual replacement of the Jamaican dollar with the central bank’s digital currency is also likely to help achieve this goal. The Bank of Jamaica plans to exchange about five percent of the Jamaican dollar’s money supply for digital currency each year.
Even more radical was the introduction of cryptocurrency as a means of payment for Salvador. The Central American country adopted Bitcoin as the legal currency last September. And it also defended this move with the low availability of financial services by the local population.
