Kazakhstan will decide on the introduction of CBDC by the end of 2022. One of the world’s largest Bitcoin miners is still wondering if he needs a central bank digital currency.

One of the largest countries in the world in terms of bitcoin’s hash power (BTC), continues to research a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC).

According to a report by local news agency Kazinform, the National Bank of Kazakhstan has completed a prototype of its digital tenge platform.

The central bank is currently preparing to announce the preliminary results of the digital currency experiment and a CBDC pilot on December 15, Dossayev said. He noted that domestic financial firms and a number of international partners were involved in the pilot.

Despite active CBDC tests, Kazakhstan still has to decide whether to introduce a digital representation of its national currency. According to Dossayev, the central bank should make such a decision in December 2022.

The National Bank of Kazakhstan is paying increasing attention to the development of CBDCs abroad as more and more countries around the world develop their own digital currencies, the governor added.

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Kazakhstan opened a public consultation on a potential CBDC in May 2021 after local authorities began considering a national digital currency the previous year.

Approach to introducing a CBDC follows a similar plan by Russia, a country in the former Soviet Union, which plans to start its first trials with a digital ruble earlier this year.