Bakong, the groundbreaking digital currency initiative launched by the National Bank of Cambodia in 2020, now has a tie-up with Alipay+, extending its reach further. Chinese visitors will be able to pay in Cambodia using their Alipay wallets. Plus Cambodians with full KYC bank-linked Bakong wallets will be able to pay overseas at merchants linked to Alipay+.
While Bakong supports US dollars and Khmer Riel, the Alipay+ deal appears to be targeting Khmer Riel usage.
Stepping back, Bakong is often described as a central bank digital currency (CBDC) because it’s operated by the central bank. However, it isn’t a CBDC, particularly as Cambodia is a heavily dollarized economy. It’s really a tokenized deposit system because the digital currency is a liability of commercial banks. When users pay each other, there’s an end-of-day settlement between banks.
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