Google, Visa, and Nubank are among the prominent companies chosen to participate in the second round of pilots for Brazil’s Drex CBDC project.
Brazil’s central bank has been developing a digital real for several years, initiating its first pilot phase in 2023 to test privacy and programmability functionalities via a specific use case. The central bank has narrowed down proposals for the second phase from 42 to 13, utilizing the existing infrastructure to explore “the implementation of financial services, enabled through smart contracts created and managed by third-party participants in the platform.”
Visa will collaborate with Nubank and brokerage XP to optimize the foreign exchange market using a CBDC. Google will team up with financial services firms to focus on credit collateralized by public securities, while Santander is experimenting with transactions related to car sales.
Additionally, the central bank is already preparing to invite new applicants for participation in Drex pilots concerning smart contracts.