Belarus is building a CBDC platform on Hyperledger Fabric.
Belarus Deploys Blockchain Platform for Central Bank Digital Currency (CBCC). The country is under international sanctions, but Belarus hopes to use the digital ruble (Belarus ruble) for cross-border transactions.
According to Ekonomicheskaya Gazeta, a local newspaper, the state-owned Center for Banking Technologies began building the CDCC platform in January and is now actively recruiting developers. The platform will be built on the open source Hyperledger Fabric blockchain.
The official website of the Bank's Technologies Center has job openings for back-end developers with knowledge of Hyperledger Fabric and Linux and experience in creating smart contracts.
The CBDC pilot, developed by the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, appeared in April 2023. At that time, the chairman of the National Bank, Pavel Kallar, stated that the country will make a final decision “at the end of 2023, the head of government on the CBCC.”
Related: Japan to resolve CBC issuance legality by Q2 2024
In the year In July 2023, the Deputy Chairman of the National Bank, Dimitri Kaltychts, confirmed that the country will implement CBDC as legal tender. He also emphasized that the “digital ruble” could be used in cross-border trade with Russia, which was actively exploring its own CBCC, also called “digital ruble”.
In May 2023, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko met with Russian Central Bank Chairwoman Elvira Nabilina to discuss the digital ruble, a possible single currency framework for both countries.
Meanwhile, since last year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus has been working on a law reform that would ban peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Citing the high level of cybercrime in Belarus, the authority argued that cryptP2P services are “in demand among fraudsters who export and exchange stolen funds and transfer the funds to organizers or participants in criminal schemes.”
As of early 2024, several countries have announced further moves to explore or implement CBDCs, including Japan, Cambodia and the Emirates.
Magazine: Big Questions. How can Bitcoin payments be a comeback?
