Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20231022)*

Argentine central bank accelerating work on a digital peso bill

The Central Bank of the Argentine Republic is reportedly accelerating its work on a central bank digital currency (CBDC) legislative framework. Earlier in the month, the current Minister of Economy and presidential candidate Sergio Massa, committed to introduce a digital peso should he win the election. However, the latest election polls have Massa trailing Bitcoin-friendly Javier Milei, who advocates adopting the U.S. dollar as Argentina’s official currency while opposing the central bank’s role in the economy. Meanwhile, the central bank touts a digital peso’s traceability by which the government could thwart tax evasion and avoidance. [Read more at Coin Telegraph]

mBridge switches to new Chinese blockchain consensus protocol

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub’s mBridge multiple CBDC cross-border payments project, has reportedly switched to a new blockchain consensus protocol. The project was first deployed on a customized network that borrowed aspects of popular blockchain networks such as Ethereum’s smart contract language Solidity. It relied on HotStuff, a Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus protocol. Local Chinese media is reporting that mBridge has transitioned to the Dashing Protocol, developed by the People’s Bank of China’s (PBoC’s) Digital Currency Research Institute. The PBOC is an mBridge project partner, along with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), Bank of Thailand, and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates. [Read more at Coingeek]

*For those interested in intra-day updates, check out my searchable Diigo Fintech developments database, which is also a good place to go to query for past developments: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/ART.

Kiffmeister’s central bank digital currency monthly monitor

Just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So (only) if you work at a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and who would like to receive it by email on the first business day of every month, please DM me on LinkedIn or email me at chronicles@kiffmeister.com

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