The development of virtual currencies by central banks around the world is accelerating.

The global monetary and financial system is entering an era of digital change, with the rapid development of the data economy and the growing demand for digital financial services, and the development of central bank virtual currencies in many economies is pressing the fast-forward button. The Atlantic Council, a think tank based in the United States, recently published a study on the development of global central bank bitcoin mining app virtual currencies, revealing that 105 countries and regions are currently investigating the study of central bank virtual currencies, with approximately 50 of them having advanced stages of development, piloting, and offering.

Pilots for Accelerated Research and Development

In recent years, the central banks of various economies have increased their investment in virtual currency research, development, and testing. According to the latest round of central bank virtual currency surveys released by the Bank for International Settlements in May of this year, 90% of the 81 central banks participating in the survey were conducting virtual currency research, with 62% conducting relevant trials or proofs of concept.

During the Beijing Winter Olympics, a digital currency pilot covering over 400,000 scenarios was a highlight of the international extravaganza. According to Konstantin Orndov, director of the financial markets department at Russia's Plekhanov University of Economics, digital currency will become more complete in its efficacy and comprehensive in its characteristics through testing during the Beijing Winter Olympics, and will become a virtual currency with a broad future on a global scale. According to the People's Bank of China, as of May 31 this year, the pilot areas in 15 provinces had accumulated approximately 264 million digital currency purchases and sales, totaling approximately 83 billion yuan, and the number of merchant stores using data had increased. Payments in RMB totaled 4,567,000.

The Bahamas was the first in the Caribbean region to launch a central bank virtual currency in October 2020. When the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank issued the virtual currency "DCash" in March, the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union became the world's first monetary union to use the virtual currency. Jamaica recently passed legislation allowing its central bank to issue digital currencies.

Nigeria officially launched the virtual antminer a10pro currency "eNaira" last October in Africa. Nigeria's central bank governor, Godwin Emefiele, stated that the government issued the digital currency to supplement and strengthen the country's payment ecology and financial architecture in the new situation, thereby maintaining the payment system's integrity and stability. Furthermore, the South African virtual currency is currently being tested, and Tunisia, Morocco, Ghana, Kenya, and other countries have begun research to develop regulatory policies and implementation strategies for the central bank's virtual currency.

In Europe, the Bank for International Settlements, Switzerland, and the Bank of France completed a test project last December to confirm that central bank virtual currencies can be used effectively for international settlements between financial firms. The European Central Bank launched the digital euro project in July 2021, following a two-year investigation and analysis to address key issues such as the design and offering of the digital euro. Panetta, an ECB Executive Committee member, recently stated that the formal development of the digital euro will begin gradually at the end of next year and will take approximately three years to complete. According to Professor Tristan DiSox of Belgium's Free bitcoin earn University of Brussels, the development of the digital euro will assist the Eurozone in meeting the challenges of digital transformation, ensuring that the Eurozone better adapts to the external financial environment's transformation, and occupying a leading position in the global mobile payment industry.