Bulletpoints
• The Indian Central Bank is aiming to enroll one million CBDC users soon.
• Monero, ZCash, and Dash are experiencing massive influxes of users because of its decentralized and private financial tools.
• There are concerns that any CBDC could be used as a political and censorship tool used to control the masses.
India’s Central Bank Aims for 1 Million CBDC Users by June 2023
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that it’s aiming to enrol one million users on its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) platform by June 2023. This ambitious effort is part of the country’s push towards a digital payments landscape, and is expected to improve financial inclusion for the marginalized and make transactions faster and safer.
Massive Surge in Popular Cryptocurrencies
Amidst this move to digitize fiat currency, popular cryptocurrencies like Monero, ZCash, and Dash have experienced massive surges in user numbers due to their decentralized and private nature. These coins provide anonymity to users by making it difficult to trace transactions, thus protecting their financial life from government surveillance or potential censorship.
Concerns Over Political Control & Censorship
Despite its potential benefits, there are still fears surrounding the use of CBDCs as governments may gain greater control over citizens‘ finances than ever before. Many market leaders believe that once CBDCs become mainstream they could be easily used as a tool for political control or censorship which would be detrimental in the long-run.
Final Launch
The RBI began its pilot program back in December 2020 across major cities such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, and Bhubaneswar with regular users and merchants taking part. Deputy Governor Rabi Shankar stated that there is no official timeline yet but the launch will happen gradually with an aim of achieving full adoption eventually.