We have covered the fact that some central banks have been looking into the idea of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for awhile now. We noted that both the Bank of England and the IMF have talked about the idea. This article mentions a number of central banks around the world as being interested.

A question arises as to which country might be the first to actually implement a central bank digital currency? One candidate might be Singapore. We won't know for sure until someone actually announces they will implement one. But here are some articles that suggest Singapore is as good a candidate as any to jump in the water first.

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Singapore Moves Ahead with Digital Currency (3-2017 article)

"The Monetary Authority of Singapore said last week that it had conducted a test run of a digital prototype of Singapore dollar for interbank transfers, further cementing the nation's position as Asia's fintech leader.

The project, a collaboration between Singapore's central bank and blockchain consortium R3, was first announced in November during a week-long fintech festival in the city state."

Note: R3 is a consortium of various banks that looked at a variety of blockchain solutions offered by Intel, IBM and Monax back in 2016. It appears that IMB has a paticular interest in Singapore as we can see from the two articles just below.

Fortune - IBM Opens Blockchain R&D Center in Singapore (July 2016 article)

"IBM plans to open a blockchain innovation center in Singapore in collaboration with the government, as the city-state strives to become Asia's main financial technology hub.

IBM (IBM, +0.15%) will be working with the main economic planning agency, the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to accelerate blockchain adoption for finance and trade."    . . .

"Singapore is rushing to reinvent itself as Asia's fintech hub to fend off a regulatory threat to its wealth management industry and revive a sluggish economy."

IMB Watson Uses the Blockchain in Singapore (June 2016 article)

"Randy Walker, CEO at IBM for the Asian zone, explained this project with these words:

“Watson and blockchain are two technologies that will rapidly change the way we live and work, and our clients in Asia Pacific are eager to lead the way in envisioning and creating that future.”

This new center comes thanks to the study of the distributed ledger applications started back in 2015 when IBM joined the Hyperledger project."

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My added comments: It is pretty clear from these articles that Singapore is motivated to be a leader in new technology related to finance and commerce. IBM seems to be interested in Singapore as well investing a lot of time and money there to be on the leading edge. (see this article for examples). IBM also announced this win for their version of distributed ledger technology.

At some point in the future it is only reasonable to assume someone is going to step forward with a central bank digital currency somewhere. Sounds like Singapore is clearly in the running to be a leader.

It will be interesting to see how things unfold in the coming months and years. We talked about the current status of cryptocurrencies recently in this article. All kinds of entities are working on it. 

Now we have the launching of the first %100 gold backed currency using block chain technology in a new and unique way to digitize physical gold and silver into a legal contract on the block chain and use that like money. Once a central bank somewhere announces a central bank digital currency, we have game on for moving forward with new ways of creating and using money in the real world rather than just as theoretical concepts.

In a free market based world, competition should benefit the consumer as various competing products attempt to deliver the best product and service at the least cost. Hopefully, this is what will see in the future as new technology fuels change and innovation, even for money.