Bank of Peru makes its first payment with its own cryptocurrency

The Credit Bank of Peru (BCP) made the first payment with cryptocurrencies within the country’s regulated banking system. The transaction was completed when a collaborator paid a coffee in an internal cafeteria using a digital token issued by the bank itself, marking a step in the adoption of Blockchain through the traditional bank.

This step is taken as part of the «Blockchain Gifts» project, an internal laboratory that issued tokens in a public network. However, an intelligent contract restricts its use, prevents its commercialization and limits its expense to the BCP coffee shops by a specific group of collaborators, thus eliminating any financial risk for the participants, as detailed by Lenin Tarrillo, leader of the Bank cryptoactive area.

The operation became effective when the user scanned a QR code, Tarrillo added in conversation with the medium the Republic of Peru. He added that the Fireblocks system, which acts as «crypto banking core,» custody tokens and guarantees the safety of the operation.

Previously, the bank’s legal unit evaluated the pilot to validate compliance with current regulations.

Tarrillo explained that the objective is to explore real use cases, prepare technical capacities and reduce friction for users before formal regulation arrives. «We want to understand when the regulation arrives we already has the capabilities developed,» he said.

This test is part of a dual BCP strategy. On the one hand, a focused on technology To improve services such as remittancesand another market to analyze the profile of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency users in Peru, where 1.5 million cryptoactive holders are estimated.

As cryptootics has been informing, interest in digital assets has grown in Peru. This is reflected in that by 2022 there were 16 citizens in training, where the educational work of the NGO Motiv has been key.

Even Bitcoin has become the bank of the remote peoples of the country. This fact probably forced traditional banking to have another approach to digital assets. And although the Central Reserve Bank of Peru has expressed doubts about Bitcoin and has preferred to focus on the development of a CBDC, private banking advances towards the adoption of digital assets.

The BCP leads a pilot regulated by the Superintendence of Banking and Insurance (SBS) called cryptococci, which allows a select group of customers to buy Bitcoin and Stablecoins, integrating traditional banking with the ecosystem of digital assets.

«Banking exists to satisfy the need to guard customer financial assets. If for a growing group of Bitcoin people and the stablecoins are a financial value, the bank must begin to develop technological capabilities to also provide them with service to them ».

Lenin Tarrillo, leader of the BCP cryptocurrency wing.

On the other hand, BBVA Peru reported through its website that they are «in the preparations to offer a financial experience with blockchain technology to all our clients in Peru.»