Reserve Bank of India Is Working on ‘Phased Implementation’ of Central Bank Digital Currency – Regulation Bitcoin News

India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is working on a “phased implementation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in both wholesale and retail segments.” Necessary amendments have been made to the RBI Act, 1934 to allow the central bank to pilot and issue a digital currency.

India’s Central Bank Digital Currency to Be Implemented in Phases

A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) official and the minister of state in the Ministry of Finance have independently provided an update on the central bank’s progress in issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Local media quoted Ajay Kumar Chaudhary, RBI Executive Director, as saying at Wednesday’s keynote speech at the PICUP Finance Conference and Awards.

The RBI is currently working to implement a digital currency central bank (CBDC) gradually in the wholesale and retail segments.

Pankaj Chaudhary, minister of state in the Ministry of Finance, similarly told Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India’s parliament, Tuesday that the “RBI has started the work for a phased implementation of the announcement made … in the budget speech 2022-23.”

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the launch of the country’s CBDC in the Union Budget 2022-23. With the passage of Finance Bill 2022, necessary amendments were made to the RBI Act 34 to permit the central bank’s piloting and issuing of a CBDC.

In June, RBI Deputy Governor T. Rabi Sankar said the central bank believes that “CBDCs would actually be able to kill whatever little case there could be for private cryptocurrencies.” The Indian government and the central bank refer to non-state-issued cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), as private cryptocurrencies. The RBI had warned in May that crypto could result in the dollarization part of the Indian economic system.

Earlier this month, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said: “Cryptocurrencies are a clear danger. Anything that derives value based on make-believe, without any underlying, is just speculation under a sophisticated name.”

Indian central bank repeatedly said that crypto currencies should be banned. However, the country’s finance minister told parliament earlier this week that “any legislation for regulation or for banning can be effective only after significant international collaboration on evaluation of the risks and benefits and evolution of common taxonomy and standards.”

Let us know what you think of the RBI’s plans for implementing a CBDC. Comment below.

Kevin Helms

Kevin is a graduate of Austrian Economics. He discovered Bitcoin in 2011, and has been an advocate ever since. His main interests are in Bitcoin security, open source systems, network effects, cryptography, and intersections between economics, cryptography, and Cryptography.