Barbados Blockchain Startup Signs Deal with Caribbean Central Bank for Possible Crypto Launch
Barbados-based blockchain startup Bitt is joining forces with the Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten (CBCS) in the hope of issuing a national bank-sponsored cryptocurrency for the two countries.
Bitt, a subsidiary of Overstock’s Medici Ventures, said Monday that it has signed an agreement with the central bank for the Dutch Caribbean island Curaçao and Netherlands constituent nation Sint Maarten in the beginning of August . The objective of the arrangement is to look at ways of issuing a computerized Curaçao and Sint Maarten guilder in place of the present Netherlands Antillean guilder.
The initiative will to some degree center around testing know-your- customer/ anti-money laundering (KYC/AML) systems as explained in statements released to the public.
CBCS acting president Leila Matroos-Lasten said the bank reached a deal with Bitt “due to this company’s regional experience in digital payments and its macroeconomic views.”
“The central bank is determined to address its challenges proactively by exploring the latest technology available, for example, to reduce the level of cash usage within the monetary union, and to facilitate more secure, more AML and KYC compliant and more efficient financial transactions within and between Curaçao and Sint Maarten,” she added.
Mrs. Matroos-Lasten said that the agreement is a signal that the bank understands the potential development that innovation can bring.
“The CBCS … is committed to exploring solutions regarding the efficiency of cross-jurisdictional transactions and digital payments whilst ensuring compliance and security assurances obtained by these state of the art [fintech] solutions,” Matroos-Lasten was quoted as saying. “This would be beneficial to everyone.”
The news comes a couple of months after Bitt reached a similar deal with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, an important financial institution that serves Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
That pilot project might be used as the bedrock to creating new computerized payment and settlement systems, and if fruitful, could at last help the bank issue its very own digital currency , as reported by CoinDesk.
