South Africa is the latest land to brainstorm exploring the possibility of creating its own sovereign digital currency.

Co-ordinate to a release issued on Tuesday, the S African Reserve Banking company has begun preliminary feasibility studies about the "desirability and ceremoniousness" of a retail fundamental banking concern digital currency.

As part of its proclamation, the SARB defined a retail CBDC as a cash-complimentary sovereign digital currency issued by the key banking concern suitable for electronic payments.

"The objective of the feasibility study is to consider how the issuance of a general-purpose CBDC will feed into the SARB's policy position and mandate," South Africa's key bank stated in its proclamation.

Co-ordinate to the SARB, the preliminary study will focus on issues surrounding a potential CBDC issuance for retail use in Due south Africa:

"The feasibility study will include practical experimentation beyond dissimilar emerging technology platforms, taking into account a multifariousness of factors, including policy, regulatory, security and take a chance direction implications."

Due south Africa'southward CBDC study is expected to last until 2022 and will potentially align with the existing institutional digital payments pilot nether the aegis of "Project Khokha."

Similar other central banks currently studying CBDCs, the SARB also stated that its electric current exploratory studies were in no style an indication of plans to consequence a digital rand in the future.

Back in June 2018, the SARB launched a pilot test for Project Khokha — the country'south tokenized fiat interbank payment system. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the projection utilizes the Ethereum-based Quorum infrastructure to test digital immigration and settlements for interbank payments.

The global CBDC field continues to aggrandize, with Communist china seen every bit the de facto leader — at least amidst the major economies. In South Korea, the country'south fundamental bank recently appear plans to partner with a technology firm to build a sovereign digital currency for its testing protocols scheduled to begin in August.