The Central Bank of Iran plans to launch the pilot phase of its digital currency project soon, an official revealed. The Islamic Republic hopes to join a growing club of nations looking to reap the benefits of a sovereign coin, while also looking to implement blockchain technology in other areas.
Iran begins state-backed digital currency trials
The Monetary Authority of Iran intends to test its central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the near future, a senior financial regulator said, quoted by the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA). The news comes in the fourth year since the project was first announced.
According to a statement by Mehran Moharamian, deputy governor for IT at the Central Bank of Iran, the CBI sees digital currencies as a solution to resolve certain inconsistencies and decentralize resources. Other countries have already started benefiting from CBDCs, he noted.
Moharamian did not give any specific information about the start of the pilot phase. Authorities in Tehran hired the country’s Informatics Services Corporation to develop a “national cryptocurrency” in 2018. The CBI arm operates the country’s bank automation and payment services network.
The company later explained that the Iranian digital currency was designed using the Hyperledger Fabric platform, a blockchain framework implementation and one of Hyperledger’s projects hosted by the Linux Foundation.
Blockchain aims to revitalize the Iranian stock market
Though the Iranian crypto space remains largely unregulated — apart from mining — another report this week suggested officials have been exploring various ways to deploy the technology underlying cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.
Iran’s capital market should seriously consider the use of blockchain technology as it can help satisfy some important needs of the stock market and create new opportunities for its revitalization, Majid Eshqi, head of Iran’s Securities and Exchange Organization, recently commented . Quoted by SENA and the English-language business newspaper Financial Tribune, he stated:
In two years at the latest, we will be forced to use blockchain technology… It will not be long before we start tokenizing physical assets and stocks that can be easily traded on the new platforms.
He added that it is time to examine the potential of blockchain technologies to solve some existing problems such as shareholder identity verification and initiate the infrastructure process.
In early January, Iranian media announced that Tehran will allow local companies to use cryptocurrencies in international settlements with their partners abroad. The central bank and government of the sanctioned country have reportedly given the go-ahead for the launch of a mechanism that will facilitate digital coin payments in the field of foreign trade.
tags in this story
Bank, blockchain, blockchain technology, cbdc, cbi, central bank, central bank of iran, crypto, crypto technology, cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency, digital currency, iran, iranian, national cryptocurrency, stock market, tokenized assets
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Lubomir Tassev
Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchen’s quote: “Being a writer is what I am, not what I do.” Along with crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and business are two other sources of inspiration.
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