CBDC stands for Central Bank Digital Currency. This we all know, but did you know that they are already in extensive development around the world already?

It seems that for a while it wasn't clear if CBDCs were going to become a reality but there were rumblings. However I didn't realize that it wasn't a matter of if, but when CBDCs were going to be used. Many countries have realized the 24/7 time window and the near instantaneous speed of the transactions makes payments easier, faster, and cheaper when used with a CBDC.

The extent of which countries were already researching, developing and implementing CBDC was surprising to me.

Some brief stats;

11 countries have already launched fully functional CBDCs and are using it currently

17 countries are running pilot programs that are either set to end this year or next year

33 countries are in development of a CBDC and will set to run pilot programs soon

Another 39 countries are researching the development of CBDCs

In total this makes 100/195 countries that are currently using, researching or developing a CBDC.

I'll dive into some of the details below but before I do just some clarification on the wholesale vs. retail usage.

Wholesale - Mainly Interbank

Retail - Mainly for General Public Use

Both - wholesale and retail use

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Launched:

Mostly countries in the Caribbeans (Nigeria being the only African exception), and all for retail use

4 are undecided (they use a non-mainstream blockchain technology, DCMS for Anguilla, Dominica and Motserrat, Digital Symmetric Core Currency Cryptography for Jamaica)

The Bahamas use NZIA.

The rest of the launched CBDCs all use Hyperledger Fabric, which is an open-source blockchain technology developed by IBM. If you haven't heard of it before, it was first used in blockchain-based food traceability programs in Walmart and now is used in a variety of areas.

Interestingly enough all the launched programs are focused on retail only.

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Most of the Carribeans

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Yah, and about 100 more...

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Complete list of Hyperledger Fabric Members

Pilot Program:

Most of the countries are using some form of proprietary blockchain. I haven't had the time to look into every single one of them but feel free to check. Saudia Arabia and UAE are both using Hyperledger Fabric, but Australia and South Korea are currently experimenting with Ethereum. A mix of wholesale, retail or both. I imagine eventually it would be used for both, as there's no reason not to if one is already successful.

Europe, Asia and Africa/Middle East leads the way in the pilot program stage.

South Korea's pilot program has just wrapped up its second phase and is set to begin its roll out any day now. However, the Terra Luna debacle I'm sure has put a damper on things. Until that matter is settled we might not see a roll out.

Australia's pilot program is set to wrap up this year. In addition, two of its commercial banks have already set up stablecoins and experimenting with them.

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Ethereum the first mainstream Cryptocurrency being used in CBDC pilot programs

In Development:

Isreal is the only country using ETH for their CBDC, all other countries are either proprietary, in development, or undecided.

Mix of Asia, Europe and finally, the Americas. Mostly intending for usage of both.

One ETH to rule them all.

In conclusion:

With some pretty significant pilot programs wrapping up, it is clear that CBDC is going to be used all over the world in some of the largest economies. Ethereum is the current front runner in terms of mainstream crypto but could change in the future as there are only a few use cases. ETH gas fees are also an issue and a layer 2 crypto could be used but that's just my own personal opinion.

Non-crypto blockchain wise, Hyperledger Fabric could be the front runner, but not sure if it will be the eventual winner.

TLDR; CBDCs, they comin.

What do you think, will the mass adoption of CBDC at a country level increase the general adoption of crypto for the general population?