Central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, which some have described as the spawn of Satan, made headlines this week after multiple countries ramped up efforts in developing their own digital money.
On Aug. 30, it was reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria, or CBN, issued preliminary guidelines for its proposed e-naira digital currency. On the following day, news broke that Barbados-based fintech firm Bitt Inc. signed on to work as the technical partner for the CBN’s e-naira rollout.
Singapore is also looking to get in on the action, with the Monetary Authority of Singapore shortlisting 15 “Global CBDC Challenge” participants to help build an in-house retail CBDC.
Reports also surfaced on Sept. 2 that the central banks of Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa announced a joint initiative dubbed “Project Dunbar” to trial international settlements using CBDCs.