Eastern Caribbean Digital Currency “DCash” Hits “Major Obstacle”, Has Been Offline For At Least A Month

It was no sooner than we reported Jamaica was looking to debut its e-currency, the Jam-Dex, which would follow in the footsteps of other Eastern Caribbean digital currencies, than reports started to come in that the digital version of the Eastern Caribbean dollar has hit a “major obstacle”. 

DCash, the digital dollar used by seven small nations, has been offline for a month and could be out of service for several more days, according to a new report from BNN. 

Josh Lipsky, the director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center, commented: “This is an important case study in things that can go wrong in the rollout and expansion of a digital currency. Every country trying do a large rollout has had problems.”

DCash was only launched last March, and was considered the first digital currency to be used by a monetary union, the report says.

Karina Johnson, a DCash project manager at the bank, blamed the issue on “an expiring certificate on the version of the Hyperledger Fabric that hosts the DCash ledger”. 

She said: “We are approaching the end of closed testing on the technical solution and anticipate commencing wider stakeholder testing in the next seven days.”

Recall, just days ago we noted that Jamaica was following in the footsteps of DCash. The country’s CBDC is called the Jam-Dex and it carries with it a tagline as relaxed as the nation’s reputation: “No cash, no problem”. 

The Bank of Jamaica said it went through hundreds of suggestions to try and find a tagline for its CBDC, according to Yahoo Finance.

We also hope, you know, that they actually tested the currency, too, and not just the marketing pitch – otherwise they could find themselves in a similar situation as DCash currently faces.

The Jamaican bank said the CBDC’s new slogan “is a phrase that instantly evokes Jamaica, and moreover, speaks to exactly the mood we want consumers and businesses to have when they are using Jam-Dex.”

And the country’s central bank looks like they take things just barely serious enough as necessary. Yahoo noted that the country’s central bank logo “is a crocodile holding a key, and it regularly produces reggae songs about inflation targets and economic policy.”

Jamaica took the digital currency for a test run in 2021, and Prime Minister Andrew Holness has decided that it would be launched nationally this year.