The Director of Brazil’s Central Bank, Fabio Araujo, said that Bitcoin was a “financial innovation” and possesses great technological properties that have brought about many new critical products. Additionally, he pointed out that, because of Bitcoin, jurisdictions are thinking of creating central bank digital currencies (CBDC).
“We started to accelerate this in 2009, with the launch of Bitcoin, with distributed database technology that facilitates the creation of Web3. The Bitcoin application brings the Proof-of-Work (PoW) solution, which is fundamental for the services that Web3 brings to the population.”
On the other hand, although Araujo is enthusiastic about Bitcoin and its future, he does not support it as a currency due to its volatility. He said that it works great as an asset but, in the case of a currency, a CBDC would be a much better idea. He also verified that the Central Bank of Brazil is looking into making a CBDC, adding:
“Even though CBDC uses the technology that supports crypto, CBDC is not a crypto asset. The CBDC is an expression of the Real within the environment in which cryptocurrencies operate, in the same way that the Real does not compete with listed assets.”
At the same time as praising Bitcoin, Araujo said that Ethereum was gaining speed with its smart contract features. He also affirmed that the Central Bank of Brazil was thinking of using financial products that had features from Bitcoin, Ethereum, DeFi, Web3, and stablecoins.
Recently, there has been a surge of crypto investors in Brazil. For example, bank Nubank reached one million crypto users only a month after launch. This shows great potential and could mean that Brazil might very well become a leader of the crypto world in the near future.