1st November 2022, India’s Central Bank, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is launching the first pilot of the Digital Rupee for the wholesale segment.
The digital rupee used for this pilot is for the settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities.
The objective is to make the interbank market more efficient as a settlement in central bank money would reduce transaction costs.
In the future cross-border payments will be the focus of future pilots, based on the learnings from this pilot, the RBI statement said.
The Digital Rupee will offer an additional option to fiat currency.
However, unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) or Dogecoin (DOGE), the value of the Indian Digital Rupee will not depreciate or appreciate with time.
Essentially, the digital rupee is the same as regular banknotes — except that it will be in digital form.