Both national and global companies will participate in the upcoming Brazilian one central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot project. Banco Central do Brasil, the country’s central bank, will begin adding participants to the digital real platform around mid-June 2023.
On May 24, the central bank published final list of CBDC pilot participants. The participants were selected from a pool of 36 bids submitted by individual companies and consortia, “more than 100 institutions in total”. The final number of participants is 14; however, some represent groups of companies. For example, the United States-based technology giant Microsoft; the Brazilian bank Banco Inter; and digital technology company 7COMm is one of the 14 participants.
Other participants include Visa, Santander and several Brazilian banking institutions such as Itaú Unibanco, BTG Pactual and Banco Bradesco.
In the current phase of the digital real-world pilot project, the central bank will test the privacy and programmability features of its platform through a single use case: a delivery versus payment protocol for federal public securities.
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Brazil’s CBDC pilot was officially announced in 2022. The value of the digital real would be tied to the national fiat currency, the real. He would have a fixed supply and minted over time.
Latin America’s largest country, with a population of 214 million, remains a magnet for global crypto companies. In January, Binance and Mastercard teamed up to launch a prepaid crypto card in the country. Coinbase since March has partnered with local payment providers offer crypto purchases and allow local currency deposits and withdrawals. On May 19, the central bank Latam Gate granted — payment provider for Binance in Brazil — license to operate as a payment institution and electronic money issuer.
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