Blockchain Startup to Help Curacao and Sint Maarten C-Bank Assess Digital Currency Idea

Barbados-based blockchain company Bitt will work with the Curacao and Sint Maarten (CBCS) central bank to examine whether issuing a digital currency will be beneficial. The collaboration is the result of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on August 3, Bitt said in a statement on Monday.

Due to the formation of a monetary union in 2010, the two Dutch constituent countries share one currency, the Netherlands Antillean guilder. However, the use of a common currency creates challenges for the two Caribbean islands as the physical distribution of money across the sea is rather costly and time-consuming, Bitt CEO Rawdon Adams said, going on to claim that the introduction of a virtual currency can solve these issues:

“A central bank-issued digital currency, which can be used on mobile wallets, facilitates secure and frictionless financial transactions and payments, using a mobile phone/tablet, within each jurisdiction and across jurisdictions in the monetary union.”

While Adams sees the use of blockchain as a way to reduce both cross-border transaction times and associated costs, CBCS president Leila Matroos-Lasten also noted the security aspect of the matter:

“The central bank is determined to address its challenges proactively by exploring the latest technology available, for example, to reduce the level of cash usage within the monetary union, and to facilitate more secure, more AML and KYC compliant, and more efficient financial transactions within and between Curaçao and Sint Maarten.”

She explained the CBCS had chosen Bitt due to its digital payments experience in the Caribbean region. In a recent development, the start-up signed a MoU for a blockchain pilot initiative with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), whose members are Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and St Kitts and Nevis.

Bitt is a portfolio company of Medici Ventures, a blockchain-focused investment company that operates as a subsidiary of US-based online retailer Overstock.com.