Bitt breaks new ground with digital currency transaction

International financial technology firm Bitt has executed its first successful retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) consumer-to-merchant transaction using DCash, in partnership with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB).

DCash is the newly developed ECCB digital currency. The transaction was completed at Geo F. Huggins’ Foodland, in the island of Grenada on Friday, February 12, 2021, as part of the digital cash infrastructure project.

Commenting on this achievement, Governor of the ECCB Timothy Antoine said “this transaction is a major milestone in our mission to place DCash in the hands of the people of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU)”.

“I congratulate Geo Huggins on making history. We are now on the cusp of the public launch of DCash,” said Antoine.

The ECCB has begun to issue DCash to participating financial institutions to enable customer purchases at selected merchants, as part of the closed segment of the DCash pilot. This live exercise is the final step before the public launch in four of the ECCU’s eight sovereign member countries.

Over the last year, Bitt has worked hand in hand with the ECCB in creating the DCash infrastructure using Bitt digital currency management system (DCMS).

Bitt has further enabled every stakeholder of the ecosystem, including financial institutions, merchants, government agencies, and end-users, with the infrastructure and applications necessary to fully issue, transfer, hold, transact and remediate using digital currency DCash.

Chief Executive Officer of Bitt Brian Popelka said he was “extremely proud to provide the ECCB with our digital currency management solution to efficiently service the entire financial ecosystem within the ECCU”.

“Bitt’s DCMS is at the forefront of integrating digital currency operations into any financial infrastructure. The future of financial transactions is about delivering ultimate efficiency, end-to-end, for institutions, businesses and customers. Bitt’s mandate is to promote financial inclusion through our technology of digital cash,” he added.

The DCash Pilot is a key initiative of the ECCB’s transformational agenda as articulated in its 2017-2021 Strategic Plan. Governor Antoine spoke about this historic pilot in that context saying, “DCash is about the people of the ECCU. Through DCash, we intend to increase their financial inclusion, competitiveness and resilience”.

Over the next few weeks, Bitt is supporting the ECCB as registered financial institutions, merchants and agents achieve full readiness for the public roll out in the countries of Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Lucia. (PR)