Jamaica’s Central Bank Partners With Irish Tech Firm For CBDC Project

Jamaica’s central bank partners with an Irish tech company for its central bank digital currency project that is scheduled to start in May as we read more in our latest crypto news today.

The Bank of Jamaica, which is Jamaica’s central bank, partnered with the Irish tech company for its central bank digital currency project and this marks the latest country making efforts towards issuing its own digital currency. According to a press release by the Bank, eCurrency Mint is a cryptography security company that specializes in central bank digital currency issuance and it got selected as the technology provider for the sovereign digital currency project.

Jamaica’s central bank invited many tech solution providers to submit applications for a CBDC project back in 2020 and at that time, the BoJ clarified that its planned sovereign digital currency won’t be based on crypto. Based in Ireland, eCurrency Mint is working with central banks and other international finance organizations to develop protocols for CBDC design and implementation. As a part of the announcement, Jamaica’s central bank stated that the CBDC pilot will commence in May under the reign of BoJ’s Fintech Regulatory Sandbox. The Irish company will support the central bank in testing during its pilot stage that is scheduled to be completed by December.

The company will also serve as Jamaica’s CBDC provider when the national roll-out commences in 2022. According to the previous statements by the BoJ, the central bank digital currency will be available for both businesses and individuals as payments means that are similar to cash. Like other countries in the Caribbean, Jamaica has a lot more liberal crypto laws with regulated entities such as the Stock Exchange that participate in crypto trading.

The bank is also one of the few central banks that is working on CBDCs. Back in 2020, the Bahamas became the first country to launch a sovereign digital currency. Regional CBDC efforts are ongoing with the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union which is working on blockchain-based sovereign digital currency projects. On the other hand, Asia’s largest economies are speeding up with their CBDC development projects and multiple banks in China issued digital wallets as well for the digital currency electronic payment system project.

In Japan the central bank is a leading public-private partnership that will examine proof of concept protocols for the digital yen while back in March, Kuroda Haruhiko who is the governor of the Bank of Japan stated that the country has to work out different modalities for issuing a CBDC.