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American payment giants such as GooglePay and AmazonPay are reportedly aiming to participate in the Indian central bank’s digital currency pilot.
Top U.S. tech giants such as <a href="https://crypto.news/tag/amazon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Amazon</a> and <a href="https://crypto.news/tag/google/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Google</a> are reportedly looking to join India’s central bank digital currency pilot, as the Reserve Bank of India opens its digital currency initiative to non-bank payment firms.
According to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/google-amazon-walmart-seek-join-indian-cenbanks-digital-currency-project-sources-2024-08-05/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">sources</a> cited by Reuters, AmazonPay, GooglePay, and <a href="https://crypto.news/tag/walmart/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Walmart</a>-backed PhonePe have expressed interest in facilitating transactions with India’s <a href="https://crypto.news/tag/cbdc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">CBDC</a>, known as the e-rupee. Additionally, Indian fintech companies Cred and Mobikwik have also applied to join the pilot, although the timeline for their participation remains unclear.
Initially, only Indian banks were authorized to facilitate e-rupee transactions through their mobile applications. However, in April, the RBI announced that payment firms could soon be integrated into the pilot program as well.
You might also like: <a href="https://crypto.news/why-is-usdt-more-expensive-in-india-we-talked-to-top-local-exchanges/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> Why is USDT more expensive in India? We talked to top local exchanges </a>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading is-style-default" id="india-s-push-for-digital-currency-adoption">India’s push for digital currency adoption</h2>
Launched in December 2022, the e-rupee represents a tokenized version of the Indian Rupee, issued by the RBI. Following its launch, RBI officials <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/india-cenbank-says-digital-currency-transactions-stay-largely-anonymous-2022-12-07/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">emphasized</a> the e-rupee’s privacy features, assuring the public that transactions would remain anonymous to some extent.
Despite these assurances, the CBDC’s adoption has been slow. By late June, the Reserve Bank of India <a href="https://crypto.news/indias-cbdc-activity-declines-sharply-after-artificial-pump-report/" target="_blank" data-type="post" data-id="14281228" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">reported</a> achieving 1 million retail transactions with the e-rupee, but only after local banks started offering incentives to clients and distributed part of their employees’ salaries using the digital currency.
The RBI had previously urged banks to increase transactions to at least 1 million per day by late 2023 to test the system’s scalability. However, this push has since ceased, casting doubt on the future of the digital currency initiative due to the gap between incentivized metrics and actual user adoption.
Read more: <a href="https://crypto.news/bybit-rolls-out-digital-rupee-payments-for-indian-customers/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> Bybit rolls out digital rupee payments for Indian customers </a>

Amazon, Google, Walmart seek to join India’s CBDC pilot: report

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