Taiwan to roll out digital currency for public use after trials

Taiwan’s central bank has completed trials of its government-run digital currency as the country plans to make it available to the public for retail use, Forkast reported.

However, a timeline for the launch of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) has not been disclosed by central bank governor Chinlong Yang.

Taiwan started working on a pilot for its CBDC in September 2020. Since then, the central bank has held discussions with at least five commercial banks in the country to develop a retail payment system that would allow people to make payments with just a digital wallet.

Yang said that the digital currency will only be issued after properly educating the public about its benefits, setting up regulations, and putting up a legal framework.

The potential launch of Taiwan’s CBDC comes after the country enforced anti-money laundering rules for cryptocurrency services, which include reporting transactions exceeding 500,000 New Taiwan dollars (around US$18,000) to the bureau of investigation.

See also: Are state-backed digital currencies a game-changer?