Union Budget 2023: Will Blockchain-Based Digital Currency Come Of Age?

ndtv.com:

Central Bank Digital Currency or CBDCs have captured the imagination of central banks around the world. Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched the pilot 'digital rupee' project and reports suggest that it may further expand the project "based on the learnings from the current pilot."

Governor Shaktikanta Das' recent statement on CBDC adoption indicates that 'digital rupee' may get a boost.

"Central banks issued digital currencies are the future of money and its adoption can help save on logistic and printing costs," he said at a recent event. 

With the Union Budget around the corner, industry watchers expect some announcement regarding the digital rupee. 

"I think CBDC will be a hot topic of discussion in this year's Budget," says Kamlesh Nagware, CTO at Snapper Future Tech, a blockchain firm. He believes that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman may announce measures to enable offline, cross-border payment and digital asset ecosystem for CBDCs.

The Government of India has been a votary of CBDCs. In her last Budget speech, Ms Sitharaman said 'digital rupee' will lead to a more efficient and cheaper currency management system.

For the unversed, CBDCs are the digital version of the official currency, backed by the central bank. They are very often backed by blockchain technology, as is the case with the digital rupee.

"In the CBDC trial phase, 16,000 users made e-rupee transactions in one month. The beginning is excellent and holds enormous potential for the future of e-rupee," believes Amogh Tiwari, Founder of DayFi, an NFT-based financial utilities company.

Experts believe that blockchain is likely to get impetus in the coming years, with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology coming out with a