Caribbean CBDC Remains Offline for More Than 2 Weeks Amid Technical Issues

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Jaroslaw Adamowski

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Jaroslaw Adamowski

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June 26, 2023 06:55 EDT

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DCash, a central bank digital currency (CBDC) commissioned by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), has been offline for more than two weeks amid technical issues that continue to affect the platform.

“The DCash Team continues to resolve the technical issue that is impacting the ability of users to complete transactions on the platform,” the operator said in a statement today at 8 AM local time, promising another update at 6 PM local time.

Commenting on the outage, which reportedly began on January 14, Karina Johnson, a DCash project manager at the ECCB, told Bloomberg that officials were working “around the clock” with their service provider Bitt Inc. “to re-establish full transaction capabilities as quickly as possible.”

“The security and integrity of all DCash applications and architecture, including all central bank and financial institutions, and merchant and wallet apps remain secure and unaffected,” she said, adding that DCash transaction data was also “safe and secure”.

DCash was launched in March 2021 under a deal signed by the bank and the Barbados-based fintech Bitt. The company has been involved in a number of CBDC projects across the world. Among others, last October, Bitt said it facilitated the roll-out of Nigeria’s eNaira.

To roll out DCash under its pilot project, the ECCB has also partnered with a number of banks, credit unions, and businesses to provide a digital payment option that is currently available in five island economies that lie in the Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Kitts, and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. DCash is a digital version of the Eastern Caribbean dollar, and the islands are members of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU).
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