The Lithosphere cryptocurrency platform has met with the Central Bank of Brazil to discuss their joint efforts in launching a Digital Real central bank digital currency (CBDC) trial in the country, according to a press release from KaJ, the Seattle-based blockchain firm that developed Lithosphere.
Banco Central do Brasil presidents said the central bank is "making progress" in its efforts to digitalize the Brazilian real and could introduce a digital currency as early as 2022, provided the required infrastructure and conditions are established.
"KaJ Labs will focus on how interoperability could be achieved between various CBDCs and other DLT solutions," KaJ Labs founder, Joel Kasr, said in the press release.
Brazil, which has been considering CBDCs since 2020, introduced the PIX system in November last year, allowing customers to make transfers and receive payments directly through their mobile device.
Additionally, the system accelerates interbank payments and makes them more affordable for people, corporations, and government entities.
With the help of Lithosphere's custom blockchain interoperability solutions, distributed ledger technology will be used to tokenize the bonds and the wholesale payment token, as well as to facilitate the transfer of funds.
The Lithospere's CBDC trial with the Central Bank of Brazil will test both types of tokenized money for settling debenture or bond transactions on a permissioned blockchain.