Brazil begins trials for its own CBDC, the digital real

Brazil yesterday started the pilot project to create the digital real, the country’s future official virtual currency (CBDC), the Central Bank announced.

According to the central bank, the digital currency will be tested until February 2024. The project will be evaluated in March next year before it becomes a reality.

“We are working with the expectation of maturing the project sufficiently to allow access to the population by the end of 2024,” said Fabio Araujo, the central bank’s digital real initiative coordinator.

Initial tests will be conducted in a simulated environment without involving real transactions and securities. Access will be restricted to financial institutions authorized by the bank.

During the pilot project, end-user participation will be simulated through encrypted (tokenized) deposits of the digital real.

The test phase will also include a simulation of the purchase and sale of government securities in partnership with the National Treasury.

This will be one of the uses of the new version of the Brazilian currency, i.e., buying and selling government securities using the digital real will be possible.

In practice, digital currency will be an extension of today’s physical currency. And it will be issued by the Central Bank and guarded by the monetary authority.

The main focus will be for use in financial transactions, although it will have other applicability, including the possibility of being converted and withdrawn into paper money.

According to Araujo, banks have shown great interest in using virtual currencies issued by the Central Bank.

These currencies are different from cryptocurrencies, which are private and unbacked.