Recently, Bank of Thailand launched the Project Inthanon. While not a lot of details are available about this project but it is rumored to be on the Central bank digital currency lines. This clearly indicates that Thailand might actually be planning to launch the Central bank of cryptocurrency.
The bank of Thailand is the Central bank of the country. That is why any initiative to launch a cryptocurrency by the Central bank should be taken seriously. This also indicates how serious, Thailand is about launching its own cryptocurrency as well. There are rumors that it will be using the proof of concept prototype in order to launch the cryptocurrency.
One thing which is for sure is that Thailand prefers decentralized money transfers rather than the current process which is used. It is going to trust the blockchain technology much more with the Central bank backed digital currency.
The project was earlier announced by the bank of Thailand governor in June. It was announced in Singapore. The governor had clearly stated that the technology and the solutions which will be built by the project will help it in conducting the interbank settlement in a completely new way. Thus, there are also rumors that initially, it might be just for the banks as well as other financial institutions in the country rather than for the retail users. That is why it is not yet clear whether it will be available to the public or not.
In phase 1, there are 8 banks which are participating. This clearly indicates that the private sector will have an involvement as well. Once a proper prototype is built, thereafter more institutions can be involved as well. Initially, it will be for interbank settlement but the Central bank was quick to add that later on, it can be used for third-party fund transfer as well. They did that, once the protocol is successful, cross-border fund transfer can also be added to the system to make it much more versatile. That is why it seems like the Central bank of Thailand is in it for the long call. If indeed, it is able to integrate all of these features, it will become the by default tool for the Thailand financial institutions.
If indeed, Thailand goes along and launches the Central bank backed digital currency, many of the other countries might think about following suit. In such a case, the use of cryptocurrencies will become more and more common.
