The Central Bank of Kazakhstan evaluates the achievements of the Digital Teng pilot, next steps

Kazakhstan's Central Bank's (CBCC) digital currency Digital Tenge has reportedly been successful after a month-long pilot project. A number of commercial, regulatory and technical improvements are lined up for 2024.

During the pilot trip, DigitalTeng in Almaty for school children in the local Onay! A card originally intended for use in transit systems. Kazpost's postal system operator acted as an intermediary for those transactions.

Plastic cards were issued to members of the focus groups by four local banks in collaboration with Visa and Mastercard. The cards allowed users to make purchases in person or online and withdraw money from ATMs. Participating merchant had the option of accepting digital tenge or converting to “non-cash” tenge.

Converting Digital Tenge into existing Point of Sale and QR systems. The cards were valid outside and throughout Kazakhstan. The report says this level of interoperability is a first for CBCC.

Great follow-up meeting with @Mastercard SVPs Selim Ergoz&Arn Vogels based on #UNGA78 agreements. Encouraged by ongoing efforts in DCP implementation – opening regional center in Almaty, strengthening digital #Tenge, training for small and medium schools and 5 other priority areas pic.twitter.com/cpviSwL7DM

— Yrzan Ashikbayev (@KZAmbUS) November 28, 2023

Other experiments with digital teng include making cross-border payments via SWIFT and issuing CBDC-backed stablecoins on the Binance and KASE platforms. Digital Tenge was used to simulate gold, VAT was collected using smart contracts and was an app test for monetization.

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The National Bank of Kazakhstan and the National Payments Corporation of Kazakhstan (NPCK), the body established in September to manage the national CBCC, have a long list of goals for 2024. They include increasing the number of intermediary banks and further developing decentralized financial applications. .

The agencies hope to conduct offline transactions on a scale that will dramatically increase financial participation in the country as internet connectivity is limited in some regions. They also increase participation in cross-border payment projects. Kazakhstan is an observer in project mBridge. They also have regulatory and legislative goals that must be implemented simultaneously, and hope to increase the security and speed of the digital transformation.

In an interview on the eve of the report's release, NPKK CEO Binur Zhalenov confirmed that Digital Teng will not be used to monitor users.

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