The so-called ‘Sand Dollar’, pegged to the Bahamian dollar (which is pegged to the USD), is now available to all 393,000 Bahamian residents. While a number of countries around the globe have taken steps toward issuing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in the past, the Bahamas may be the first country to have successfully launched a completed CBDC. Photo: FM

According to a recent announcement by the Project Sand Dollar on Facebook, the country’s national cryptocurrency, the so-called Sand Dollar, was just released for nationwide use.

The announcement was published on October 20, 2020, revealing that the Sand Dollar became available from around 10:00 PM UTC. All 393,000 residents of the Bahamas can now use it, which makes this country the first in the world to release a CBDC to the entire nation.

As some may know, China has supposedly finished the development of its own coin, and it has been testing it in multiple regions for quite a while now. However, not even China has released its coin to the entirety of its nation.

Another project that is reportedly close to releasing the coin is Cambodia, whose Bakong cryptocurrency might see the launch in the next few months. The country launched its pilot a while ago, in July 2019.

Details about the Sand Dollar

Of course, the central bank of the Bahamas did not rush its coin just to benefit from the first-mover advantage. It has been preparing to launch its own crypto for several years.

Evidently, it started its own pilot program back in 2019, when it used 48,000 Sand Dollars on two of the islands — Abaco and Exuma. Each Sand Dollar is pegged to the country’s national currency, the Bahamian dollar. Meanwhile, each Bahamian Dollar is pegged to the USD.

From what is known, the Sand Dollar can be transferred via a mobile app, as a 2017 study discovered that around 90% of the country’s population is using mobile phones. Residents can also use the coin at any merchant that owns an e-Wallet approved by the Central Bank.

Transaction fees are also extremely low. In fact, the central bank went as far as to call them ‘negligible.’