Central bank digital currencies aka CBDC have been making the rounds around the globe. Sweden seems to be the latest country to explore the prospects of these currencies.
The value of the cryptocurrencies as well as their functions have time and again proved to be extremely propitious. Therefore, the governments decided to take things up a notch by rolling out their own regulated digital asset. China’s progress in the field agitated several other countries to begin their research on CBDCs.
Sweden’s Steer Towards Digitalization
In a recent announcement, the central bank of Sweden, Riksbank revealed that the country was going to prolong its pilot program until 2022. The bank specified that it had partnered with Accenture to carry out the e-krona pilot program. With this partnership, the bank intends to find ways that the e-krona could be on par with the fiat in Sweden.
The announcement further read,
“The main aim of the pilot is for the Riksbank to increase its knowledge of a central bank-issued digital krona. The project is now being extended to the end of February 2022. The aim for the coming year is to continue developing the technical solution, with the focus on performance, scalability, testing of off-line functions and bringing external participants into the test environment.”
While the central bank suggested that it was veering into the whole CBDC scene, it also revealed that it wasn’t issuing an e-krona any time soon. The bank has still not decided on the design or the technology the digital asset would be using.
In other news, payments giant Mastercard had announced the launch of the Bahamian Sand Dollar CBDC card with Island Pay. This affirms that both China as well as the Bahamas are well ahead in the CBDC game. The Sand Dollar has been functioning since October 2020 the latest move could attract more users.
The co-founder of Island Pay, Richard Douglas said,
“By working closely with the Central Bank of The Bahamas and Mastercard, we are able to issue a prepaid card unlike any other in the world. We are now able to bring immediate, critical benefits to our customers at a time when they are looking to find new, innovative ways to pay.”