The Director of Brazil’s central bank, Fabio Araujo, has lauded Bitcoin’s properties. He referred to the flagship currency as the catalyst for Web3 development.
According to the Director, BTC is a financial asset that uses modern technology. He made this statement while speaking at an event sponsored by a Business School in Sao Paolo. Furthermore, Araujo also talked about the country’s digital Real and how it differs from crypto assets.
Araujo Lauds BTC As The Pioneer Of Web3 Technology
Various central banks have shown interest in the crypto sector in the past months. Some are looking for ways to integrate digital currencies into their country’s financial system.
Account to Araujo, Bitcoin is a financial asset that has fostered the development of web3 globally. He also talked about Brazil’s CBDC, the digital Real.
He believes the CBDC has programmable features. Araujo stated that the country started looking at the crypto sector in 2009 after the launch of Bitcoin.
He added that the advent of BTC brought about the Proof-of-Work mechanism, which is fundamental to the services of Web3. Furthermore, he said that BTC came before ETH and brought the idea of smart contracts.
While talking about the country’s CBDC, Araujo said it has smart contract capabilities. At the event, the director showed several slides which showed that the CBDC is connected to web3 elements like tokens, offline payments, digital assets, and the internet of things (IoT).
CBDCs Are Different From Crypto Assets
The director also differentiated between crypto assets like BTC and the digital Real. According to Araujo:
“Although CBDC uses the same technology that crypto assets use, CBDCs are not crypto assets. The digital Real is an electrical form of the national currency present in same environment as digital currencies. However, the digital Real is not competing with these assets.”
Furthermore, Araujo noted that the CBDC was an opportunity to bring smart functions to the country. These smart functions can close the gap between Web3 and conventional finance.
Meanwhile, the central bank has conducted different CBDC experiments on digital Real. However, it would reach a decision on whether to launch it or not in 2024.
Meanwhile, other countries have already launched their CBDCs, with China leading the CBDC race. Meanwhile, Thailand’s central bank recently stated that it would begin testing its retail CBDC soon.
However, other countries continue to postpone their CBDC project citing the issue of regulation. They believe they must enforce a proper regulatory framework before adopting a CBDC.
