Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das recently revealed that the central bank could launch its digital currency as early as December this year. The RBI is expected to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC), which could be known as a digital rupee.
“The Reserve Bank of India may launch its first digital currency trial programs by December," the RBI Governor told CNBC in an interview. He said that the digital currency will not be a new product for just RBI, but also globally and the central bank is extremely careful about the new project.
“I think by the end of the year, we should be able to — we would be in a position, perhaps — to start our first trials," Shaktikanta Das told the news channel.
What is Central bank digital currency or CBDC?
CBDCs are digital versions of fiat currencies of a particular country. A virtual currency, CBDC is issued by the authority of a nation that is in charge of managing the fiat currency there.
According to reports, currently, the RBI is studying various aspects of CBDC, analysing coin's security, its impact on the financial sector, the monetary policy, and the impact on the currency that is in circulation.
The RBI “is also exploring the choice between having a centralized ledger for the digital currency or the so-called distributed ledger technology (DLT)," Das said in the interview.
