The Central Bank of Brazil toned down its central bank digital currency (CBDC) ambitions, postponing the idea of a retail digital real rollout.

According to local reports, the bank decided to shut down the decentralized ledger platform that served as a base to run the pilot of drex, the CBDC platform that had been in development for years.

Fabio Araujo, coordinator of the drex project, clarified that it would now focus on becoming a platform to facilitate the usage of assets as collateral for loans and other operations.

Talking to Folha de Sao Paolo, and disregarding the project’s “digital currency” moniker, Araujo stated:

The term digital currency, in fact, does not capture the full extent of the Drex initiative, since it refers to payments, which is not its central point.

“Technological issues are the main obstacle to the advancement of the drex initiative. Associated with these issues, there is also the difficulty in relation to the current shortage of human resources in the central bank staff,” he added.

Blockchain infrastructure for drex will be terminated on November 10. Participating institutions were informed in advance.

The abandonment of the initial proposal of drex, which aimed to become Brazil’s retail digital equivalent of the real, shows that even the largest economies can fail to tackle the technical challenges of such a large project.

One of drex’s most significant problems was implementing an effective privacy system, which became a genuine issue in 2024. While partners presented several proposals to address this technical problem, these failed to devise a solution for participants to maintain transaction secrecy while allowing regulators to scrutinize these movements.

The postponement of Brazil’s CBDC initiative opens the doors for stablecoins to advance in the country and become the de facto substitute for this idea. Nonetheless, there are still issues to solve regarding stablecoins, as the central bank has not finalized regulation governing these yet.

• What decision did the Central Bank of Brazil make regarding its CBDC?
  The Central Bank of Brazil has postponed its plans for a retail digital real, shutting down the platform designed for the digital currency pilot.

• What will the focus of the drex project be moving forward?
  The drex project will now concentrate on facilitating asset usage as collateral for loans rather than developing a digital currency.

• What technological challenges affected the drex initiative?
  Key issues included implementing an effective privacy system and a shortage of skilled personnel within the central bank.

• What does the postponement of Brazil’s CBDC mean for stablecoins?
  This delay may allow stablecoins to gain traction in Brazil, as they could serve as an alternative until regulations are established.

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