Nigeria is one of the countries that has its own digital money. And the plan is that the money will be tested since early October 2021. Rakia Mohammed said this at a meeting on Thursday last week. In the previous article it has been mentioned that there will be a meeting to discuss the initiative. And a source at the meeting said that Coindesk, which is a digital money pilot program, will be used starting October 1st. Not only that, this digital currency will be built under the Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain. And this information was later confirmed directly by Governor Giidwin Emefiele who is the governor of the central bank in Nigeria. He said that the virtual money that will be circulated in Nigeria will be called e-neira and will operate as an e-wallet or virtual wallet where users can store their money in the e-wallet.
But it seems that although this information has been widely circulated, Hyperledger does not yet know information regarding the use of software for the virtual money project in Nigeria. And according to Brian Behlendorf as Executive Director of Hyperledger, the technology is open source. And his party did not know the software that would be used before it was launched. And Brian Behlendord added that if there was an increase in the use of the Hyperledger open source Blockchain technology as well as Hyperledger Fabric for CBDC or Central Bank Digital Currency and also projects for other currencies. But because the technology is all open source, of course not everyone knows the direction and also where this hyperledger software will be used before it is launched.
If this virtual currency protection from the Nigerian state is built on Hyperledger Fabric this is welcome which then validates the fabrix which is a CBDC platform. The CBDC’s most important plan was revealed by Mohammed a few months ago. The country’s central bank has been researching virtual money for years and is conducting a pilot program later this year. He once said that if digital Naira can facilitate transactions made by users, digital Naira can be used to make money transfers so that it is easier for Nigerians to work at home and abroad. Digital currency will boost economic growth. And cross-border transactions will make it easier for many people to get various accesses to various banking services.
In February, the central bank in Nigeria ordered all banks and financial institutions to close their accounts when they want to transact with cryptocurrencies including bitcoin. And the central bank also threatens all parties who violate and will get very heavy sanctions. This is a sign that digital currency transactions are not allowed there. And this attitude was carried out after a mass protest was carried out against police brutality or what was called SARS or the Special Anti Robbery Squad, which allegedly obtained bitcoins for funding. And this was done by the local government after blocking a local transaction payment platform that was used to collect donations. Joachim Macebong, who is a senior analyst at SB in Lagos, said that if the instructions will make the adoption of cryptocurrencies more than the other opinion, one party will promise freedom and the status quo will create very strong restrictions.
Actually, if you look at the problems that have occurred, there is an outline that can be drawn where some of the funding obtained is done from cryptocurrencies even though CBN has placed restrictions on several accounts.
