The Bahamas central bank wants to make its digital ‘Sand Dollar’ global

The Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBOB) is planning to make its central bank digital currency project interoperable on the international level.

Bobby Chen, CBOB assistant manager of electronic solutions, claimed that the Bahamas’ digital currency — dubbed the “Sand Dollar” — should eventually be interoperable with other global currencies, local news agency the Nassau Guardian reported on Oct. 15.

Chen said, “At the moment, it is currently only used in a domestic setting, but eventually we are working on a solution that will make it interoperable with other global currencies.”

Cleopatra Davis, head of banking at the CBOB, also said that the Sand dollar’s interoperability with other wallets is a key strategy alongside integrating the real-time gross settlement and Automated Clearing House. According to Davis, this will enable the movement of the Sand Dollar to and from user bank accounts, which will further facilitate fiat conversions.

Davis also noted that the API card-less onboarding will be a major component of the national rollout scheduled for Oct. 20. The executive outlined that the process became “extremely important during the time of COVID-19” because it allows users to access the Sand dollar without needing any physical interactions.

The latest news comes follows previous reports of the CBOB’s plans to launch the currency across the entire archipelago in October. The Sand Dollar initiative was launched in 2019, with the government trialing the CBDC on the small islands of Exuma and Abaco in December of that year.