The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) has launched DCash, created in partnership with Barbados-based fintech company Bitt.
This new digital currency is intended to address the high cost of current payment methods and banking services, failure of banking services to meet many customers’ needs, and inefficient methods of settling cheque transactions. ECCB hopes to see the use of physical cash fall by 50% by 2025.
DCash is available for a year-long pilot project in Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Lucia and St Kitts and Nevis, which are four of the eight members of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU). ECCB officials hope to have rolled out DCash in the four remaining countries ‑ Anguilla, Dominica, Montserrat and St Vincent and the Grenadines ‑ by September this year.
Central Bank Governor Timothy N J Antoine said: “The future of the EC Dollar is digital, so let’s make history together.” Antoine added that he foresees DCash becoming widely used, especially by farmers, fishermen, small business owners, single mothers and people without bank accounts.
DCash is emphatically not a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. To use DCash to make payments to merchants or person-to-person, you will need to create a digital wallet by downloading the mobile phone app.
- To find out more, go to Eastern Caribbean Central Bank.
