According to available sources, The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) should pilot its own central bank digital currency in the foreseeable future. A report by the Iranian Labour News Agency confirms that the CBI vice-governor Mehran Moharamian is convinced that national cryptocurrency might greatly benefit the country thanks to its decentralized nature.
The CBDC is said to have been in the works since 2018 under the patronage of the Informatics Services Corporation, an executive branch of CBI. The development period is reportedly finished and the project is set to see the light of day soon, although a specific timeframe has not been revealed yet.
When it comes to blockchain technology, Iran is not a newcomer. Its government had previously sought help in crypto, after facing economic difficulties as a result of the US sanctions imposed on the country. It belongs among the pioneering countries in Bitcoin legalization, even though they sometimes have to temporarily halt its mining to save energy resources.
By developing and piloting the project, the country will join nearly a hundred countries currently working on their own CBDCs. The frontrunner in this field is China, which is already testing its cryptocurrency in several provinces. The country is followed by France and Switzerland with multiple pilot launches, and South Korea, Japan, and Russia, which are expected to carry out their pilot phases later in 2022.