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Olá pessoal!

For today’s episode I talk to a pair of crypto journalists — Ricardo Bomfim of Valor Economico and Claudia Mancini of BlockNews — about delays impacting two highly-anticipated projects being developed by the Central Bank of Brazil.

Both Drex and a regulatory framework for crypto brokerages and VASPs were originally expected to be unveiled in 2024. However, these have been pushed to next year due to technical roadblocks and staffing issues at the bank.

Key themes discussed in this episode include:

Drex’s Privacy Hurdle

* The Central Bank has paused the CBDC pilot project after hitting a major privacy barrier

* The core challenge is scaling the underlying Hyperledger Besu blockchain tech while complying with Brazil's bank secrecy laws

* Several promising privacy solutions will be explored during the second phase of the pilot, which will also focus on incubating new use cases

Regulatory Delays but Positive Engagement

* A framework for crypto brokerages initially expected in the second half of 2024 has been pushed to Q1 2025

* However, the Central Bank has continued to take an engaged approach, actively soliciting private sector feedback

* Despite the delays, the market response has been positive given the open dialogue

Leadership Change Ahead

* Central Bank president Roberto Campos Neto, a key driver of Drex and the bank's crypto-friendly stance, will see his term expire in Dec 2024

* His potential successor has made some skeptical comments about Drex, raising concerns of backtracking

* However, Claudia and Ricardo argue these innovation projects have roots far deeper than just the BC’s leadership

I enjoyed the opportunity to discuss these topics with two of the country's top journalists, and I hope you the conversation!

You can connect with Claudia and Ricardo on Linkedin.

Have a great weekend everyone,

-AWS

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