2021-5-27 15:31 |
The Bank of Indonesia (BI) is planning to launch a digital rupiah as central banks across the globe continue racing to issue CBDCs. A report unveiled this news on May 25, noting that the authority is already assessing platforms on which the digital rupiah can run on. Reportedly, the Bank of Indonesia’s decision to issue a CBDC aims to modernize the Indonesian financial system while shielding the country’s economy against cryptocurrencies.
According to the report, BI hopes that a digital rupiah will also help expedite domestic and international transactions, especially after the country’s volume of digital transactions spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from BI revealed that the transaction frequency of digital banking transactions rose by 60.3% year-to-year. The bank also disclosed that the total amount of funds transacted through digital platforms surged by 46% to hit 3,114.10 rupiah (£1,537.56).
Per BI’s governor, Perry Warjiyo, the central bank is evaluating the ability of the digital rupiah in helping it reach its monetary policy and payment system goals. He added that the bank is conducting tests to check whether Indonesia’s financial infrastructure is ready to incorporate the digital rupiah. Seeing as the rupiah is the only legal tender in the country, Warjiyo said BI would regulate the digital version of the currency in the same way it regulates banknotes and card-based transactions.
Indonesia’s CBDC set to face stiff competitionAlthough Indonesia prohibited the use of cryptocurrencies in payments in 2017, the country allows its citizens to trade cryptocurrencies for cryptocurrencies freely. However, this restriction has not prevented the citizens from warming up to the nascent sector.
Adrian Pollard, the co-founder of white-label crypto exchange software company bitHolla, shared his point of view with Invezz,
Indonesia in recent times has been adopting cryptocurrencies like crazy. What is interesting about the habits of users is the adoption of lower dominated assets like Dogecoin or XRP. Pretty much anything that looks cheap people seem to be adopting. If the central bank of Indonesia tries to release their own CBDC I think they are going to struggle to compete against these native crypto assets that have clearly caught the attention of locals.
Pollard added that Indonesia is a major internet and mobile user. As such this would present yet another challenge for the CBDC, seeing as it would have to run on a user-friendly platform and the local banks are not exactly good at developing user interfaces.
The post Bank of Indonesia joins other central banks in the race to launch a CBDC appeared first on Invezz.
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