Real digital will be called Drex, confirms Central Bank

digital currency

New technology should reach account holders only at the end of 2024

Virtual currency that will be equivalent to money in circulation, the digital real will be called Drex, confirmed this Monday (7) the Central Bank (BC). The name was confirmed by BC economist Fabio Araujo, coordinator of the initiative, in a weekly live by the monetary authority on YouTube.

According to BC, each letter of the digital real is equivalent to a characteristic of the tool. The “D” stands for the digital word; the “R” represents the real; the “E” represents the electronic word; and the “X” conveys the idea of ​​modernity and connection, in addition to repeating the last letter of Pix, an instant transfer system created in 2020.

Drex, informed the BC, will make life easier for Brazilians. “The solution, previously referred to as Real Digital, will provide citizens and entrepreneurs with a safe and regulated environment for the generation of new businesses and more democratic access to the benefits of digitizing the economy”highlighted the agency.

applications

Unlike cryptocurrencies, whose quotation is linked to demand and supply and has a lot of volatility, Drex will have the same value as the real. Each BRL 1 will be worth 1 Drex, with the digital currency being guaranteed by the Central Bank, while cryptocurrencies are not guaranteed by any monetary authority.

Wholesale currency, not retail, Drex will not be accessed directly by account holders, but through virtual wallets linked to a payment institution, such as banks and banking correspondents. The customer will deposit the corresponding amount in reais in these wallets and will be able to carry out transactions with the digital version of the currency.

In practice, Drex will work like a Pix cousin, but with different purposes and value scales. While Pix complies with security limits and is mostly used for commercial transactions, Drex can be used to buy real estate, vehicles and even government bonds.

Tests

In tests since the beginning of the year, the digital real should only be available to the population at the end of 2024. In March, BC chose the platform to be used in transactions. In recent months, the monetary authority authorized 16 consortia to develop financial tools and instruments that will be tested in the new system.

Scheduled to start in September, the tests with the consortia will take place with simulated operations and will test the security and agility between the digital real and tokenized deposits (real assets converted into digital) of financial institutions.

The assets to be used in the pilot project will be the following: deposits from bank reserve accounts, settlement accounts and the National Treasury single account; demand bank deposits; payment accounts of payment institutions; and federal public bonds. The tests will be carried out in stages, with simulated transactions with National Treasury bonds only being carried out in February of next year.

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