East Caribbean Central Bank launches digital currency

Shoppers using East Caribbean Central Bank  digital currency on their smartphones
DIGITAL MONEY: Shoppers scan the merchant’s QR code to make a payment from their DCash Wallet

Residents of Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Lucia and St Kitts and Nevis can now pay for goods and services and make peer-to-peer money transfers from their smartphones using the East Caribbean Central Bank’s DCash central bank digital currency (CBDC).

To use the digital currency, consumers first sign up to DCash via participating banks and credit unions or by downloading the DCash app for Android or iOS devices.

They can then provision their DCash Wallet by converting funds from their bank account or from physical notes and coins.

Transactions can be made either by scanning a merchant’s QR code with their mobile device or by manually entering the recipient’s ID number and the amount of the transaction.

“DCash is a securely minted digital version of the Eastern Caribbean dollar issued by the East Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB),” the bank says.

“It offers a safer, faster, cheaper way to pay for goods and services and send EC funds to other DCash users all using a smart device.”

A video shows consumers using DCash for QR code-enabled transactions and includes a full list of financial institutions and merchants supporting the CBDC at launch.

The ECCB has yet to announce whether it will be rolling out DCash to the other four member nations of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union — Anguilla, Dominica, Montserrat and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The Bahamas became the first Caribbean country to launch a CBDC in October 2020.

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