CBDC News

Brazil’s CBDC to Begin as Centralised System

The Central Bank of Brazil wants to deliver a CBDC, the Drex, in 2026. To do this, local media reports it will abandon most of its tokenisation and blockchain elements. The central bank is working on two phases: the first phase will not include a decentralised aspect, with an expected launch next year, and the second phase will continue to implement and mature blockchain technologies.

The new plan with a centralised Drex implies that many of the use cases tested during the two phases of the pilot will not be able to be implemented, given the lack of programmability of the underlying architecture.

In addition, the technical challenge of combining novel privacy solutions with Ethereum-based Hyperledger Besu, an open-source, Ethereum-compatible blockchain platform solution that was chosen for Drex back in 2023, means there is no guarantee that the project will continue to use it.