Manama, (Business News Report)| The Central Bank of Bahrain announced it conducted a successful test of payment in digital dinar through the Blockchain technology.
The bank said that the successful test is an important step towards issuing the digital dinar.
According to sources from the Central Bank of Bahrain, the competent authorities were able to carry out the first money transfer via the digital dinar within 48 seconds. This was possible after completing the necessary infrastructure in the local banking sector.
Sael Al-Waary, Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer of Bank ABC Group, said that the experiment is considered successful, after it took about 24 hours in advance to make the transfer to the United States of America.
Bahrain plans to introduce the digital dinar to banks in the country, as part of the strategy to develop the financial services sector.
The bank said earlier that the goal of this step is to develop financial services and financial technology through the digital dinar, include improvements to the infrastructure of the Bahrain National Electronic Network for Financial Transactions (BENEFIT), develop the Gulf Payments Network to link and support points of sale with all its services, and upgrade and improving the infrastructure of the Electronic Funds Transfer System (EFTS).
It also aims to link retail banks to the Arabian Gulf System for Financial Automated Quick Payment Transfer (AFAQ), and within the multi-currency platform (Buna) for cross-border payments between Arab countries, to develop an instant payments system around the clock, and to enhance the FinHub 973 digital platform for financial technology.
It also aims to use SupTech to develop supervisory practices, employ new business models to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, and support the needs of promising sectors such as financial technology, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
Last week, Bahraini youths announced the launch of the first sharia-based digital currency aimed at facilitating donations to humanitarian projects.
The CEO of the digital currency, Hamid Fakhro, said that a sharia supervisory body will be formed, to ensure its permanent agreement with Islamic sharia.
He stressed that the value of daily digital currency trading currently ranges between two million and 10 million dollars per day.
The currency is currently ranked among the top 200 most traded currencies around the world, noting that the continued demand for it can bring it to advanced ranks in the list very quickly within three years, he explained.
