eRupee’s Retail Trials Witnessed Transactions Worth Rs. 5.7 Crore in Initial Four Months: RBI Data

eRupee, India’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), has reportedly facilitated transactions amounting to Rs. 5.70 crore in the initial four months since commencing its retail trial phase. This disclosure comes from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in response to an RTI query filed by Moneycontrol. The RBI initiated the retail trials of eRupee in specific regions across the nation starting from December 1, 2022.

The central bank, in its response to Moneycontrol’s RTI inquiry last month, stated, “As per the data published in the balance sheet of the Reserve Bank of India as on March 31, 2023, the E-Rupee issued for CBDC (Retail) stood at Rs 5.70 crore.”

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) represent an electronic form of sovereign currency, built on blockchain technology. Transitioning from physical cash to CBDCs not only reduces dependence on paper currency but also ensures all transactions are securely recorded on a distributed ledger, thus minimizing the risk of tampering with transactional data.

A total of thirteen banks, including Canara Bank and the State Bank of India (SBI), are assisting the RBI in conducting these trials. These banks also offered benefits and rewards to people experimenting with the eRupee, which helped the RBI meet its target of one million daily transactions by end of 2023.

In the months to come, the RBI is planning to load more features onto the eRupee, now that several Indian banks are letting people experiment with payments through it.Last week, Shaktikanta Das, the governor of RBI, told the media that the eRupee CBDC is to be loaded with features supporting offline payments for rural regions and programmability feature for corporate uses.

“Financial inclusion and financial stability constitute two of the key motivations driving interest in CBDCs across the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, the rapid rise and sudden fall of private cryptocurrencies have sparked interest in CBDCs,” the report had noted.Along with India, other nations that are working around their respective CBDCs include the UK, China, Japan, and South Korea.