India tests retail CBDC to expand user base
The designer of the Central Bank of India’s Retail Digital Currency (CBDC-R) aims to grow the digital rupee’s user base to one million. Ready to focus on solving the problems that arise in creating the offline version of the CBDC.
Earlier, RBI officials said it had targeted 500,000 users by July. But now it seems that the government wants to expand the user base more.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is conducting a CBDC pilot program. CBDCs are now being deployed in at least 15 cities with more than 13 banks participating. The Government of India started the CBDC pilot program on 1 December 2022 and has more than 100,000 customers. joined in the four months since
Improve the potential of the digital rupee.
At the recent G-20 meeting held in Bengaluru, digital rupee was discussed and attracted a lot of attention.
Speaking at a media conference, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said, “Really well-known figures from the international finance sector have been involved in the design of our CBDC, but it lacks innovative technology.”
In 2023, the Bank of India hosted a hackathon to find a solution to the problems with retail CBDCs and to find ways to improve transaction support, transaction speed and offline transactions.
The Bank of India is expected to use debit cards, credit cards, Bluetooth technology or smart phones for offline transactions. The key issue to prevent is double spending.
More than 50 proposals have now been submitted to the Bank of India to resolve the issue of offline transactions. And the Indian government has asked for cooperation with private companies to solve the problem as well.
It has yet to be announced when the retail CBDC in India will be officially rolled out. But it has been suggested that it may be by the end of this year.
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