Eastern Caribbean central bank conducting digital currency pilot

Medici Venture announced its portfolio company Bitt is using blockchain technology to conduct a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot across the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union’s (ECCU) member countries. The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) and Bitt have partnered to pilot an ECCB securely minted and issued digital version of the Eastern Caribbean dollar distributed and utilized by financial institutions throughout the ECCU.

ECCU member countries are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica,Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Digital EC dollars facilitate peer-to-peer transactions between merchants and consumers using smartphone applications, improving avenues for doing business in the Caribbean.

“Bitt’s integration with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank is another step toward advancing blockchain technology in a meaningful way,” said Jonathan Johnson, president of Medici Ventures, a blockchain accelerator and subsidiary of Overstock.com. “Bitt is significantly improving the payments space by utilizing blockchain technology to provide banking options to countries with large portions of their populations unbanked.”

The live CBDC pilot plans to eventually roll the digital EC dollars out to the public across the Eastern Caribbean, on a phased basis. The pilot aims to promote greater financial sector stability, facilitate balanced growth in the Caribbean, and reduce the amount of cash usage within the ECCU.

Read the full release

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