The Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBOB) is reportedly set to roll out a digitalised form of the Bahamian dollar in the Exuma district.

Specifically, the CBOB will run its new crypto coin (CBDC) through a pilot phase on December 27, with an additional extension in the first 6 months of 2020, to Abaco – a group consists of islands and barrier cays, located to the North of the Bahamas. 

The crypto coin project is part of a larger initiative, which goes by the name Project Sand Dollar, and will become the first ever Bahamas-established digital currency. 

The initiative has a primary goal of bringing efficiency and non-discrimination to the access into financial services. 

In a document showing the way said initiative would work, the CBOB revealed that the new cryptocurrency has the ability to bring down “the ill effects of cash usage”, and also “effectively strengthen national defenses against money laundering, terrorist financing and other illicit abuses of the financial system.”

“Cash usage also imposes physical security risks on businesses and creates more exposure to fraudulent losses relative to electronic point of sales transactions. As it relates to physical safety, a widely adopted CBDC would also place users at less risk of violent crimes that target holders of cash, and potentially reduce security and insurance costs associated with keeping cash on business premises.” The central bank further remarked.