The Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) has selected Giesecke+Devrient’s (G+D’s) Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) solution Filia for its dual offline payment capabilities.
The CBDC will be facilitated as a part of BCB’s new digital currency phase – named the Real Digital – to be launched in Brazil in 2024.
G+D was selected by BCB for Filia’s capability to conduct dual offline payments – payments when both the payer and payee are without access to the internet or power supply.
The mandate will position Brazil among the first major countries to have a CBDC as a complementary alternative to cash.
The Filia protocol handles the processing of payment transactions between offline wallets and ensures that only mutually authorised wallets are allowed to do so. It also prevents money from being lost, or transferred twice, if the connection is interrupted during a transaction.
Transfers can also be made via hardware devices such as smart cards, wearables or key fobs and do not require either the payer nor the recipient to have a bank account.
This ensures the users of a CBDC are independent of expensive devices and network availability, making it a secure and inclusive digital means of payment, says BCB.
The implementation phase is now starting for nine of the 47 submitted projects and will conclude at the end of July 2022.
Raoul Herborg, managing director for the CBDC unit at G+D, says: "A CBDC must work for everyone, anywhere, at any time. Only in this way can it be a truly inclusive public digital currency. We are happy that the BCB recognised the importance of dual offline payments saying that this topic faces even greater technological challenges than those present in the online applications of a CBDC.”
