BSP planning 'wholesale' digital currency drop by 2026

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), our country’s central bank, is planning to launch a “central bank digital currency” (CBDC) within two years. According to BSP Governor Eli Remolona, whatever is implemented will not use the blockchain, and will not be aimed at retail or consumer users. Mr. Remolona said, “Other central banks have tried blockchain but it didn’t go well.” He added that the CBDC would likely use the existing tech that supports the Philippine Payment and Settlement System (PPSS), though it’s unclear if this would constrain the CBDC use to the PPSS’s operating hours, or if it will exist as a separate instance. Mr. Remolona said that he would like to use the CBDC for cross-border payments. Banks would be the only counterparties in the CBDC system.

MB bottom-line: Basically, don’t hold your breath for a Dank Daddy Remolona airdrop of some openly-tradable shitcoin that we degenerates could play with. It’s not like that. It’s also not that weird that the BSP would look away from using a blockchain-based approach since the main benefit of a distributed ledger technology is the ability to form consensus in a no-trust environment; here, with CBDC administered by a central actor like the BSP, there’s no need to account for untrusted third parties.

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