Cambodians Still Waiting on Central Bank Digital Currency

At the start of the year, Cambodia announced it would be launching a national blockchain-based digital currency in the 2020.

Called “Bakong” currency hasn’t yet become fully operational. The director-general of the National Bank of Cambodia, Chea Serey, indicated that the Bakong had been launched this month on a trial basis and is now expected to be operational this quarter — presumably, then, before Q3 ends on September 30.

“Bakong will play a central role in bringing all players in the payment space in Cambodia under the same platform, making it easy for end-users to pay each other regardless of the institutions they bank with. Eventually, we hope to allow cross border payment through the Bakong system too” — he said.

Presenting the Bakong digital currency system as “the national payment gateway for Cambodia,” Serey noted that additional banks are expected to join the project in the near future.

Bakong won’t be decentralized like a private cryptocurrency — the wallet used for the coin will be linked to users’ bank accounts to facilitate exchange for hard currency, and all the transactions will be processed on a real-time basis, with records stored at the central bank.