Central Bank of The Bahamas Announces Launch of Digital Dollar
The Central Bank of The Bahamas (CBOB), the monetary authority of the Bahamas, recently announced the launch of a digital version of the Bahamian dollar, the Sand Dollar. CoinDesk reported that "the first phase of the Bahamas rollout sees private-sector players such as banks and credit unions readying compliance checks for personal and enterprise wallets to support the sand dollar". According to the CBOB, underlying digital wallets will service the smartphone population, which is 90% of the country, and will be security with multi-factor authentication security. CBOB officials said that they are also looking forward to making the Sand Dollar interoperable with other global currencies. Bobby Chen, CBOB assistant manager of electronic solutions, stated that "at the moment, it is currently only used in a domestic setting, but eventually we are working on a solution that will make it interoperable with other global currencies".
The Nassau Guardian reported that "a major component of the national rollout, according to CBOB Head of Banking Cleopatra Davis, is the API (application programming interfaces) card-less onboarding". "Some of the central strategies around Sand Dollar is the API card-less onboarding. This became extremely important during the time of COVID-19 because we realized it’s not business as we know it prior to COVID-19. So, mobility and face-to-face may not be as easily accessible," Davis said. "So, through the API card-less onboarding you’re going to be able to have access to Sand Dollar without physically entering a business place to do so," Davis went on to say.
According to the CBOB, the Sand Dollar project, is intended to provide "inclusive access to regulated payments and other financial services".
The CBOB also emphasized to the Nassau Guardian, that part of their strategy is to develop Sand Dollar's offline functionality. "This is critical as we would have seen with Hurricane Dorian. How do we continue to transact if we don’t have electricity, if we don’t have a cell phone network? This is a key component, a key strategy that was built into the Sand Dollar platform," according to Davis. "Also, the need to be interoperable with other wallets. That’s a key strategy that we’re working on as well as the RTGS/ACH integration, which would allow the movement of Sand Dollar to and from your bank account, which would then convert to fiat as it hit your bank account."
According to Sand Dollar's website, Bahamian residents can use the digital currency at any merchant “with a Central Bank approved e-Wallet on their mobile device” and transaction fees are “negligible.” The CBOB is partnering with NZIA as its technology solutions provider for the rollout of the Sand Dollar.
The above references an opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to serve as investment or legal advice.