⚠️ HRF CBDC ⛓️🪙 alert from HRF for Philippines (09-MAR-2024)

🗝️ℹ️ (Key Information)

CBDC Status: Pilot

CBDC Launch: n/a

CBDC Model: n/a

CBDC Issued: n/a

Inflation Rate: 5.82%

One-Sentence Summary:

🇵🇭's Central Bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, is harnessing digital technology to pilot wholesale CBDCs, amidst ongoing concerns over governmental corruption and civil liberties.

✅ The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas decided to pilot a wholesale CBDC in 2022, aiming for payment system stability and testing large-value transactions.

✅ The central bank predicts issuance of a wholesale CBDC by 2026.

✅ The 2022 pilot (Project CBDCPh) appreciated the CBDC's payment efficiency, but Governor Benjamin E. Diokno stated it won't solve financial exclusion.

✅ After its conclusion, Governor Diokno concluded that existing digital payment systems are better options.

✅ In 2023, Project Agila - another CBDC pilot, was introduced and planned to run on Hyperledger Fabric.

✅ Various notable institutions participated in Project Agila and it was supported by IMF and the Bank for International Settlements.

✅ 2024 saw Governor Eli Remolona Jr. dismiss both blockchain technology and a retail CBDC, with focus limited to wholesale CBDC.

✅ Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan planned a completion of the wholesale CBDC pilot with participation of six financial institutions by end of 2024.

✅ Despite these developments, civil liberties and corruption remain significant issues in 🇵🇭 (58/100 Freedom Score, Freedom House 2023).

✅ As per Amnesty International, a CBDC could further enable authoritarianism by allowing easy financial seizures from protestors, political rivals, and activists.

✅ Freedom House noted corruption and governmental apathy as prevalent; it questioned if promises made to limit risks of CBDCs could be trusted or uncorrupt.

#CentralBanks #DigitalCurrency #FinancialInclusion #FinancialStability #HumanRights #GovernmentControl

Thought-provoking question:

In your view, would the implementation of CBDCs in 🇵🇭 improve efficiency and advance financial inclusion, or could they potentially magnify existing issues of government control and corruption? We appreciate diverse perspectives for an enriching discussion.

Disclaimer: This is an AI-generated summary of the original text from HRF, forigve fuck-ups plox. If you find it useful, ⚡ the Tracker Bot because the AI and Cloud bits are not free to run.

Source of data: https://cbdctracker.hrf.org/home (npub1zhqcda52mrvcc0vkwegwsp5xtpk6l6x5kqx85f06tu9lw5h6xx0scch0dw)

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