The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has outlined proposed features and reasoning behind its in-development central bank digital currency (CBDC) in a 51-page note published on Oct. 7. The country’s central bank is looking to raise awareness of CBDCs, which are being developed by a number of central banks around the world, and to clearly define the objectives and choices as well as potential positive and negative elements of introducing a digital rupee in India. The document summarizes the key motivations for the issuance of an Indian CBDC, highlighting trust, safety, liquidity as well as settlement finality and integrity as …

Five patterns that recur in retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) designs were identified in a new Bank of Canada staff analytic note. The research focused on information organization and compared software rather than real or proposed CBDCs, and it examined the practical implications of its findings for retail payment systems. The author, Sriram Darbha, called the patterns he identified “archetypes.” They were characterized by how the CBDC’s state – information about its supply and ownership – was maintained and how it was updated. Those characteristics have implications for both bank policy and hardware, according to Darbha. He said: “After …

Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee have requested the Department of Justice provide its assessment and legislative proposals around a digital dollar within ten days. In an Oct. 5 letter addressed to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, 11 Republican lawmakers asked the Justice Department for a copy of its “assessment of whether legislative changes would be necessary to issue a CBDC,” as required by President Joe Biden’s executive order on digital assets from March. The House members claimed the “appropriate place for the discussion” on legislation concerning a central bank digital currency would be in the U.S. legislative …

Terra co-founder Do Kwon, wanted by South Korean authorities, seems to live in a digital-era James Bond movie. The businessman, whose whereabouts are currently unknown, reacted via Twitter to Interpol issuing a Red Notice on him. Kwon told his followers that he calmly writes code in his living room, “making zero effort to hide.” Active on social media while facing potential arrest and prosecution in South Korea, Kwon showed his location as Singapore on his Twitter account at the time of publication. Meanwhile, South Korean authorities have requested crypto exchange OKX and Kucoin to freeze 3,313 Bitcoin (BTC) reportedly tied …

Central bank digital currencies (CBDC) can work well with decentralized finance (DeFi), and they have a lot of potential to boost DeFi adoption, according to a Swiss central bank official. Among many various types of digital currencies, it is CBDC that could provide more stability and lower risks to the development of DeFi, according to Thomas Moser, a governing board member at the Swiss National Bank (SNB). In order to grow, DeFi needs stable money, which is why stablecoins were invented, and stablecoins clearly helped DeFi to become more popular, Moser told Cointelegraph. Despite being polar opposites, centralization and decentralization …

The European Central Bank (ECB) Eurosystem digital euro project’s two-year investigative phase has reached its halfway point. The ECB published a progress report Sept. 29 that looked at design and policy issues that are under consideration or have been decided. The report said commerce in physical stores and online is the biggest use case for a euro central bank digital currency (CBDC). Currently, most digital payment solutions are limited in reach and not of European origin. Thus, a digital euro could harmonize payment solutions and strengthen European strategic autonomy, in line with policy goals. The report said: “A digital euro …

The Caribbean region is in a tough situation for banking. The 35 nations comprising the region face challenges common to many tiny economies, such as dollarization and dependence on foreign trade and remittances. In addition, the increasingly common banking practice called de-risking is taking a heavy toll. So, it is probably no coincidence that the region is also at the forefront of digital currency adoption. Carmelle Cadet, the founder and CEO of banking solutions company Emtech, is a native of Haiti who has experience working with central banks in Haiti and Ghana. Her company is also a member of the …

The Bank for International Settlements, or BIS, has reported it will be partnering with the central banks of Israel, Norway and Sweden to explore international retail and remittance payments use cases for central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. In a Sept. 28 announcement, the BIS said the collaboration — named Project Icebreaker — will involve the bank’s Innovation Hub Nordic Centre testing key functions and the technological feasibility of interlinking domestic CBDC systems. The central banks will develop a new hub in which the Central Bank of Norway, Bank of Israel, and Sveriges Riksbank can connect their proof-of-concept CBDC systems. …

As more countries make progress in terms of developing and implementing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), Ghana’s central bank aims to keep up and complete its research on CBDCs with the goal of financial inclusion according to Kwame Oppong, the head of fintech and innovation at the Bank of Ghana. In an interview with Cointelegraph’s Elisha Owusu Akyaw at the Africa Money & DeFi Summit, Oppong laid out the reason behind the West African country’s venture into CBDCs. According to the government official, their main goal at the moment is to finish testing and eventually give their citizens the opportunity …

A multi-jurisdictional Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot has been marked “successful” by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) after a month-long test phase that facilitated $22 million worth of real-value cross-border transactions. The central banks of Hong Kong, Thailand, China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) took part in the pilot program along with 20 commercial banks from those regions. More than $12 million worth of value was issued onto the test platform, which facilitated 164 foreign exchange transactions and cross-border payments between the participating firms totaling over $22 million worth of value according to a Tuesday LinkedIn post …

U.S. think tank Bitcoin Policy Institute is calling for the United States to reject Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and look to Bitcoin (BTC) and stablecoins as alternatives. In a whitepaper shared on Sept. 27, authors including Texas Bitcoin Foundation executive director Natalie Smolenski PhD, and former Kraken growth lead Dan Held argue CBDCs would strip the public of financial control, privacy and freedom. #CBDCs don’t solve any problem. They do extend state control to the last remaining free areas of individual economic life. My latest white paper for the #Bitcoin Policy Institute. ⬇️ https://t.co/PS4rOlvcOw — Natalie Smolenski (@NSmolenski) September …

Russia is in the pilot phase of its central bank digital currency development (CBDC), and new reports indicate that the country could use its national digital currency to settle international trade. According to a report published in Reuters, Russia is reportedly planning to use the digital rouble for mutual settlements with China by next year. The digital rouble is currently being tested for settling with the banks and is expected to be completed by early next year. The United States Treasury Department added 22 individuals and two Russia-based entities to the sanction list in the third week of September. With …