Brazilian digital currency, which will be equivalent to the Real already in circulation, now has a new nomenclature. O Real Digital, as it was titled in its pilot project, will now be “Drex”. The announcement was made by the Central Bank (BC) this Monday, 7, through the institution's economist, Fabio Araújo.
The information was passed on during a live on YouTube and, according to the BC, the name represents the four characteristics of the coin: “D” referring to the word digital, “R” representing real, “E” referring to electronics and “X” referring to the idea of modernity and connection. In this context, the letter X also aims to accompany the word “Pix”, payment method popularized and also launched by the BC.
The digital currency has been in testing since the beginning of the year. Nonetheless, The forecast for it to be available to the population is the end of next year. “The solution, previously referred to by Real Digital, will provide a safe and regulated environment for the generation of new businesses and more democratic access to the benefits of the digitalization of the economy for citizens and entrepreneurs”, highlighted the BC itself.
How Drex will work?
Even though it is a digital currency, the financial institution explains that Drex will present some differences when compared to popular cryptocurrencies. The main reason is that the currency has the same value as the conventional Real and, therefore, will not suffer from volatility existing in the crypto market.
Like this, the same R$ 1 digital will be equivalent to the value of R$ 1 conventional, offering greater monetary guarantee. Furthermore, Drex will not be accessed directly by account holders, but rather through virtual wallets linked to payment institutions. Like this, the customer will be able to deposit the same corresponding amount in reais in their wallet and use it for digitalized transactions.
The assets that make up the pilot project are varied: demand bank deposits, payment accounts from payment institutions, federal public bonds, deposits from bank reserve accounts, of settlement accounts and a single account of the National Treasury.
The similarity with Pix
Yet, according to the BC, in practice, Drex will work with a “cousin” of Pix. Although, the novelty will feature other scales of values and different purposes. Unlike Pix, Drex will not be restricted to commercial transactions only, how it can be used for property purchases, vehicles and even public bonds.
The next steps of the project
Sixteen consortiums for the development of financial tools and instruments have been enabled in recent months. From September onwards, these solutions will be tested to fit into the new Drex transaction system.
For that, operations will be simulated to verify the security and agility between the digitized real and the tokenized deposits of financial institutions. All tests will be done in stages. Nonetheless, the transactions that will be simulated with National Treasury bonds will only be carried out in February of next year.
