The central bank of Uruguay joins a growing list of the countries such as Russia in developing its own digital currency. Hence, the central bank reveals its Uruguay digital currency plan.
6 November, AtoZForex - Uruguay is gearing up to issue its own digital currency by introducing a pilot programme. The digital currency will be accessible through mobile wallets, according to a report.
Uruguay digital currency plan revealed
The central bank of Uruguay (BCU) has announced a six-month pilot plan for the issuance and use of digital notes of Peso. The bank also stressed the strategy is “a test plan to evaluate whether or not it transforms into a way of doing business in the future.”
However, the plan “consists of six months test with 10,000 mobile phone users of ANTEL" ANTEL (Administración Nacional de Telecomunicaciones) is the government-run telecommunications provider.
According to the bank statement, registered users can interact with merchants as well as peer-to-peer in money exchanges. “The first issue of digital tickets consists of 20 million Uruguayan pesos. Out of which 7 million has already been transferred to Red Pagos,” the BCU declared. Red Pagos is a national payments and collection company.
“The currency is same as Uruguayan peso that instead of having a physical support has a technological support,” said BCU governor and chief Mario Bergara.
The central bank governor comments on the plan
In a related statement, Mario Bergara also expressed:
“It is expensive to print tickets, the distribution in the whole territory, the security for the transport of the same. And also the opacity that the physical ticket promotes. Each person who has the app may have charged a cap equivalent to about $1,000.
While companies will have available up to $6,600. The electronic wallet can charge in a collection network where physical tickets will exchange for electronic tickets.”
In addition, physical money will not shut off immediately if the bank issues digital currency after half a year. Also, stating “the transition will take a long time to feel all citizens comfortable". However, the country is still suffering from a regional economic crisis.
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