The Central Bank of Tunisia has officially denied the launch of the e-dinar digital currency.
In recent days, there had been news that the country was about to issue its own digital currency, called e-dinar, in collaboration with the Russian company Universa.
Indeed, it seemed that test transactions had already been carried out between the Central Bank itself and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
A first denial had already been published on Twitter but from an unofficial source.
Just to debunk this news – it’s not a rollout in production! The central bank of Tunisia is exploring but nowhere near issuing a central bank digital currency. Universa just showcased what a cbdc app could look like
— Sonja Davidovic (@sonjadav) November 10, 2019
Now comes the final and official confirmation: the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) denies these rumours by explicitly calling them “unfounded information”.
Moreover, it specifies that in the context of the analysis it is conducting on the digitalisation of the economy and means of payment, the BCT is currently studying all the existing alternatives, including a CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency), although this alternative is still only in the study phase.
BCT is focusing on the digitisation of finance and on a digital currency, but not on a cryptocurrency. It is also studying the opportunities and risks inherent in these new technologies, particularly in terms of information security and financial stability.
Moreover, the Central Bank also categorically denies that it has had any kind of relationship with domestic or foreign suppliers in order to create a digital currency, including Universa.
Universa’s role was to participate in a technical feasibility demonstration of a theoretical solution of a digital currency, initiated by a private startup that has no relationship with BCT, as part of the last event organised by FOREX Club Tunisia, which is an association independent of BCT.
The Bank accuses of having extrapolated this PoC (Proof of Concept) test from its context tomake it a mere marketing operation using the name of BCT in an improper way.
As a result, it is not possible to say that Tunisia will sooner or later have its own e-dinar, and also that Universa is collaborating with the Tunisian Central Bank for the issue of a digital currency.
