# DXCD - Digital Eastern Caribbean Dollar

The DXCD consultation held on September 3rd at 10:00 am was an open conference that allowed stakeholders and members of the public to infer their inqueries on the launch of digital currency in the Caribbean by ECCB(Eastern Caribbean Central Bank). ECCB is the monetary authority for a group of eight Caribbean Countries.

The mediators highlighted their main focus during the trial period and future plans for launching, as well as cleared up any misunderstandings about what can and cannot be done during this trial period.

The DXCD app is a virtual wallet that allows the easy and safe transfer of XCD(Eastern Caribbean Dollar) to a vendor(retailer) and buyer(customer) within seconds. The trial period commenced on the 24th June 2020 and is originally intended to run for 6 months. During the meeting it was established that the trial will run until the end of 2021.

Initially, the trial commenced with the private training of bank and credit union workers. One month later- caribbean wide public notices were made seeking persons to sign up to be merchants during the pilot.

DXCD is not the first e-wallet to be introduced and used in the Caribbean, as there are other wallets on the market who function internationally without the current protocols that are meant to be established for DXCD.

There is no framework currently inplace for inter-regional transactions, nor is there access to currency exchanges, example USD to XCD and vice versa.

## Questions
During the conference these were the issues that were raised.

### The app's accessibillity to transfer currencies between wallets, such as blue wallet(bitcoin).
- The DXCD wallet has no current framework to incorporate interwallet transfers, nor is it the current perspective of the pilot program. This feature may be looked at once the app is fully functional and launced successfully.

### The app's built in KYC(Know your customer) and AML(Anti- Money Laundering) aspects.
- It was assured that these aspects were already considered and is built into the software's current framework.

### The licensing requirements for business entities under the UMSA(Uniform Money Services Act).
- There are wallets who were given provisions by their individual Governments under the UMSA and are currently conducting international transactions. These businesses want inclusion into the DXCD. Unfortuantely, there is no current provisions set up for them.

### Will the pilot programme be pushed into launching in 2021?
- The pilot has been delayed for a few months, but will be onstream during the last quater of 2020.

### Will businesses who are currently conducting electronic retail payment servicess have to wait until the official launch in 2021?
- In St. Vincent an e-wallet business is currently conducting services. The mediators have no information on the number of business who are currently conducting these services, nor an answer to this question.

### What are the regulatory aspects that the current DXCD service will provide?
- There is another e-wallet merchant who operates out of St. Lucia as a digital exchange and wants inclusion into DXCD. There is no current inclusion or awareness for established e-wallet services within the Caribbean region.

### Is there a any inclusion for an entity who holds a PSP(Payment Service Provider) licence in another market and wants to expand into the Caribbean region within the current legislation that ECCB is pushing?
- Any one who wants to operate in the Caribbean region has to get a new license for this market.

Will the ECCB become the primary regulator for e-wallet services within the region?
- ECCb has total authority over the payment system i.e, directing towards the DXCD app. The question asked was about the inclusion of other e-wallets, the answer given was a misdirection in the intent of the question. ECCB is looking towards gaining full authority over regulating electronic payment services.

### Can e-wallets partner with ECCB regulated banks to facilitate transfer of funds?
- There was a misunderstanding on behalf of the ECCB personnel and could not provide a direct answer. This question has to be directed to the banks and their willingness to provide the appropriate API(Application Progamming Interface) and PSP softwares. These banks should be willing to work with e-wallet service providers by holding an open account to conduct these transactions from digital to physical cash. These transactions are already taking place in the Caribbean region in several markets, where persons can cash out with specific banks.

### If you have not currently launched DXCD, will you allow the continued operation of e-wallet services from currently doing business, and how will you regulate these services who have already been established going forward?

- There was no definite answer by the ECCB representatives. As API's are the major barriers towards entry which includes interoperabillity and integration, and a majority of banks are not allowing these changes. Once, these are addresed there are phycially no other barriers for interoperability between Caribbean islands within the regoin, since there are no limitations such as geographic border.

## Conclusion
To conclude, critical inquiries were brought forth during the consulation. There was an information gap between the meadiators and inquierers i.e, inquierers having more knowledge on the subject.

The ECCB is highlighted as not having done a suitable research on current e-wallet services already estalished within the region, and has not made plans or inclusions for collabortions with current e-wallet service providers. It seems that their main focus is on establishing policies for a descaled model off an already internationally establised service towards a small region, which does not afford the inclusion of cross border transactions.

### REF
- https://www.bitt.com/DXCD-pilot-program
- https://www.eccb-centralbank.org/news/view/eccb-to-issue-worldas-first-blockchain-based-digital-currency
- DXCD consultation held on September 3rd at 10:00 am