The central bank of Curacao and Sint Maarten (CBCS) has declared a partnership with blockchain technology firm Bitt aimed toward exploring the issuance of a digital currency for Curacao and Sint Maarten island nations.
Per the chief executive of Bitt, Rawdon Adams, a digital currency are going to be particularly relevant to the two countries, that are both constituent countries of The Netherlands and which share identical monetary union. This is because the risks and costs incurred by the CBCS in printing and distributing physical money across the monetary union will be greatly reduced. Additionally, it'll be convenient for citizens and residents of the region.
Central Bank Digital Currency
“A central bank issued digital currency, which may be used on mobile wallets, facilitates secure and frictionless financial transactions and payments, using a mobile phone/tablet, within each jurisdiction and across jurisdictions in the monetary union,” said Adams in a statement. “This solution is especially powerful in the case of cross-border transactions, which might take days even among a monetary union, and also the cost of which is just increasing.”
According to Leila Matroos-Lasten, the acting president of CBCS — the longest-surviving reserve bank in the Americas, having been founded in 1828 — a digital currency will be more compliant with understand Your client and Anti-Money laundering (KYC/AML) policies and processes.
“The CBCS herewith acknowledges the transformative potential of innovation and technology and is committed to exploring solutions regarding potency of cross-jurisdictional transactions and digital payments whilst ensuring compliance and security assurances obtained by these state of the art (fintech) solutions,” said Matroos-Lasten. “This would be beneficial to everybody.”
Blockchain Pilot Initiative With ECCB
This is not the first time Bitt has partnered with a central bank. In March, the distributed ledger technology firm, that is partly-owned by Medici Ventures, a subsidiary of the online distributor overstock, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB). The deal was inked in the same month that Medici Ventures raised its stake in the startup to 8.6%, as CCN reported at the time.
Just like with the MOU Bitt inked with the CBCS, the goal of the earlier deal was to develop, deploy, and take a look at technology aimed at improving the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union’s risk profile by enhancing AML/KYC and Anti-Terrorism funding measures and processes. the earlier MOU also touched on exploring the development of a digital currency for the ECCU.
“[As] the ECCB promotes the security and soundness of the financial system in the ECCU, it also includes a responsibility to encourage and support innovation consistent with the Bank’s mandate to facilitate the balanced growth and development of member countries,” ECCB’s governor, Timothy Antoine, said in a statement at the time. “To that end, blockchain technology deserves our attention and consideration at this point.”
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