The Banco Central del Uruguay (BCU) is the latest central banking authority to consider exploring its own digital currency, CoinDesk reported.
Speaking at a seminar on “The Future of Money and the Financial System,” BCU President Mario Bergara said that the digital currency would function like cash.
Latin American Herald Tribune quoted Bergara saying:
“We are fairly close to launching from BCU a pilot program for a limited number of digital-currency users, which is an experiment in transforming physical bills into electronic ones.”
He explained that people would be able to load “electronic currency” on their mobile phones, instead of carrying paper currency in their their wallets. The pilot would see a limited number of users testing a mobile-based app for the transfer of funds.
“It's not that you use the phone to order money transfers, as is done today, but having bills in the cellular and being able to pass them on from one user to another,” he added.
Major central banks across the globe have been considering central bank issued digital currency (CBDC) concept. This includes the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada, and the People’s Bank of China, among others.
