In the latest development, Central Bank of Brazil Director Fabio Araujo has hailed Bitcoin as a financial innovation that uses new technology for bringing the unbanked into the banking fold.
Araujo also said that because of Bitcoin development, we can see the emergence of Web3 and all the properties in Web 3 are similar to Bitcoin.
Speaking at an event organized by the Sao Paulo Business School, Araujo also said that the Director of the Central Bank of Brazil has praised the properties of Bitcoin, saying it is a financial innovation using new technologies.
For the bank’s director, Bitcoin was the catalyst for what is today known as Web3.
He also said that there is some progress being made on the digital Real and his group wants to provide the money for smart features.
Around the world, more and more central banks are tackling the problem of cryptocurrencies and figuring out how to innovate to keep up with these technologies.
The director of the Central Bank of Brazil, Fabio Araujo also stressed that Bitcoin as a financial invention sparked the Web3 movement and discussed how the central bank’s still-under-researched digital real might have programmable capabilities.
“The cryptocurrency started to accelerate after the development of Bitcoin in 2009 and with distributed database technology that supports the building of Web3, we are certain that Bitcoin is behind the growth of Web 3”, Araujo said.
The Proof of Work solution, which is essential for the services that Web3 offers to the general public, is provided by the Bitcoin program, Araujo underlined.
Araujo also opined that the technology used by Bitcoin predates Ethereum, which features smart contracts that provide the financial system with greater options.
Working on Digital Real
Araujo also made a brief mention of the Digital Real and made a suggestion that it might be intelligent.
The central bank’s digital currency is depicted as being connected to Web3 components like digital assets, tokens, internet of things (IoT) protocols, and offline payments in a series of slides that were presented at the occasion.
The central bank’s director also made a point of differentiating between Digital Real and other crypto assets like bitcoin.
Despite using the technology that underpins cryptocurrency, according to Araujo, central bank digital currency (CBDC) is not a crypto asset. In the same manner that the Real does not compete with listed assets, the CBDC is a manifestation of the Real in the space in which cryptocurrencies exist.
According to Araujo, the digital real presented a chance to include intelligent features that would close the existing gap between conventional banking and Web3 protocols.
While the bank has conducted a number of trials regarding the idea of the digital Real, the choice of whether to move forward with or abandon this initiative will be decided in 2024.
Brazil crypto market
As per a Singapore-based blockchain firm, TripleA estimates over 4.9% of Brazilian own cryptocurrency, which is estimated to be around 10 million.
Of these 4.9% users, the majority of close to 92% are males, and regardless of gender, 40% of crypto holders are in an age group of 20 years to 25 years. The other age groups 26 years to 30 years and 31 years to 40 years respectively represent 20%.
Brazil is the fifth-largest cryptocurrency-owning nation in the world. Brazil has the highest percentage of bitcoin users in South America, followed by Colombia (7.7%), Mexico (5.9%), and Argentina (4%).
