The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) plans to begin a pilot program for digital currency in the next few months.
According to the Arab News’s citation of Deputy Government SBP Sima Kamil, the SBP would proceed with the pilot launch of Pakistan’s first digital currency within two months of completing the necessary preparations.
She was cited as saying that the sandbox, a controlled environment created for testing novel goods, services, or business models in a constrained and supervised way, would launch in a month or two.
The introduction of digital money, according to Kamil, was a component of their five-year plan, “SBP Vision 2028.”
Despite large investors depositing their money in digital currencies, the financial regulator has been hesitant to legalize digital currency within the nation, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Pakcoin, OneCoin, and DasCoin, ultimately declaring them unlawful.
However, the notion to launch its own digital money was conceived by the banking regulator. The vice governor of SBP highlighted the distinction between cryptocurrencies and CBDCs.
Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are intended to supplement current physical cash and conventional forms of electronic money. Compared to crypto currencies, they are more secure. The digital currencies, which are based on block chain technology (DLT), are designed to offer a safe and effective way to carry out digital transactions.
A small number of nations have so far launched CBDCs, and other nations and central banks are studying them.
Only Nigeria, Jamaica, and the Bahamas have so far launched their CBDCs, according to the Atlantic Council CBDC tracker, while other nations such as China, India, Saudi Arabia, France, Ghana, Canada, and Uruguay have launched their pilots.
