There were widespread rumors spread that The
Zimbabwean government is going to consider the adoption of cryptocurrencies or
Bitcoin. Within 24 hours, Zimbabwe’s minister of information publicly dismissed
ongoing rumors about the country considering the adoption of cryptocurrencies
and Bitcoin (BTC). Crypto usage in the South African continent has drastically
increased by 1,200% for the period between July 2020 and June 2021. That
gave a lot of pressure on Zimbabwe whether to go with digital currency or
not. Just like other nations Zimbabwe also have common suspicions on the
adoption of cryptocurrency like the cross-border movement of funds, money
laundering, externalization of funds, and illicit flow of funds to fund illicit
issues. That made the government reverse the decision. To some extent, it is
appreciable that Zimbabwe is keen to experiment with a central banking digital
currency (CBDC).What is CBDC? How does it differ from Crypto?
Central Bank Digital Currency is a virtual form
of fiat currency which is a government-issued currency. A CBDC is an electronic
record or digital token of a country's official currency. CBDC came into the
picture when governments are still in dilemma in the adoption of cryptocurrency
in their nations. The main aim of CBDC is to take away people from the usage of
paper currency and take them towards digitalization. Those governments whose
unable to legalize Bitcoin are looking towards CDBC. European Central Bank, a
central bank of the European Union seriously wants to release digital
Euro. The digital euro is a central bank digital currency (CBDC). This is
digital money issued by a central bank to the general public. Indian Central
Bank, RBI recently said that it is working towards a ‘phased’ launch of a CBDC.
CBDCs have a centralized network operated by the
central bank of the nation whose blockchain technology can be accessed.
Cryptocurrencies whose main feature is decentralized network can access by
anyone in the blockchain. No centralized authority is capable of limiting their
use.
CBDCs use on private blockchain whereas cryptos
are running in a public blockchain. CBDC customers will have their identity
with an existing bank account but users in cryptocurrency should enjoy
anonymity. CBDCs are replicas of cryptocurrencies but have some restrictions
and limitations.Bitcoin,
the world's popular cryptocurrency, hit a record-high $68,000 last month after
taking another step towards mainstream status. The market cap of
cryptocurrencies is worth more than $3 trillion for the first time. The value
of $3 trillion includes the prices of more than 10k cryptocurrencies. Apple CEO
Tim Cook has expressed his interest in Bitcoin and revealed owning of
bitcoin. There are no stoppings for the increasing popularity of
cryptocurrencies in the world.
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