Cryptocurrencies, digital currencies and blockchain technology have gained considerable prominence in the last two to three years, and many countries across the Caribbean region have been actively exploring how they can capitalise on the opportunities such technologies afford. Gabriel Abed, one of the co-Founders of fintech firm, Bitt, and a leading voice in the digital currency evolution in the Caribbean, helps us to understand how those technologies can help the Caribbean leapfrog to become digital leaders, and how the ordinary consumer, as well as tech entrepreneurs, should approach that space.
Over the past year or so, a week has not gone by when cryptocurrencies, digital currencies or blockchain technology was not in the news. Whether it was the high market value of Bitcoin, or its drastic and swift decline, or countries across the world, including right here in Caribbean, actively exploring issuing their own digital currency, or eagerly looking for ways to secure first-mover advantage in the blockchain space, these technologies have sparked the curiosity not only of techies and business people, but also the Ordinary Joe, who is wondering how he can also jump on that bandwagon.
Here in the Caribbean, Bitt, a financial technology company, headquartered in Barbados, that offers a digital currency exchange and mobile money services, first began to gain regional/mainstream attention in around 2016, when it launched its mobile money wallet, following the earlier establishment of its digital currency exchange. Since then, the company has broadened and deepened its service offerings, but more importantly, it has cemented some strategic relationships with Caribbean central banks, such as in Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, to support those institutions in evaluating whether to issue their own digital currencies and/or in implementing pilot programmes that use blockchain technology.
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