BOJ getting Twitter backlash from the local crypto community

Jamaica’s Central Bank is now on the receiving end of stringing criticisms on Twitter about the name and logo of its much-heralded central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The Bank of Jamaica ( BOJ)  CBDC is named Jam-Dex, shortened for the Jamaica Digital Exchange with the slogan “No cash, no problem!” The BOJ announced the name and tagline just over a week ago following a design competition in which the winner took home J$600,000.

However, the BOJ is now receiving some backlash from the local crypto community on Twitter for the chosen branding of its CBDC, arguing that the name Jam-DEX could be easily misconstrued as a decentralised exchange (DEX). The name Jam-DEX has left the Twitter community unsatisfied.

As for the logo, one person described it as “terrible” while others had similar negative responses to the CBDC, which is on schedule for a late 2022 national roll-out.

Likely confusion from branding

Twitter users while admitting that the CBDC is promising concluded that the branding leaves much to be desired pointing to confusion, which could be caused by the name Jam-DEX. This is owing to the fact that in the crypto-currency world, a ‘DEX’ refers to a decentralised exchange, where there is no centralised authority like a BOJ.

There is only a network of peer-to-peer nodes, which allow users to trade directly with one another without any intermediaries involved like a Central Bank. The local crypto community is eager to see the rejected designs expressing their disgust with the end result.

Another user posited that judges from the design competition had “out-dated” standards, while others were simply concerned that the project would not be taken seriously due to its logo.

One tweet read: “The logo is terrible at this point no one will take you serious like seriously you want to go in the most advanced state of money but your logo was created by a five-year-old mind smh that’s what you are projecting why would people who understand this space would invest here.”

Another user tweeted: “We actually have a problem where the judges have out-dated standards, which discourage local designers, who apply more international standards to their designs.”

Jamaica revealed its plans to launch a CBDC in 2020 as an alternative to crypto-currencies, making it one of the Caribbean countries to do so.

Full speed ahead with CBDC

In the meantime its full speed ahead with the CBDC, according to BOJ deputy governor with responsibility for banking, currency operations, and financial markets, Natalie Haynes. She made the point that the BOJ is pressing forward with its CBDC and is now moving to increase the number of deposit-taking institutions (DTIs) onboarding clients and ramping up the communication campaign to this end.

Haynes told Monday’s BOJ’s quarterly media briefing that National Commercial Bank (NCB) remains the sole CBDC wallet provider and that the central bank is completing its independent third-party quality assurance assessment of the system, the results of which will be made public

She advised that NCB has already on-boarded approximately 300 small merchants, inclusive of barbers, hairdressers, vendors, and cook shop operators and is currently focused on getting more individual and small merchant clients on board during the quarter,

Haynes disclosed that the BOJ is now testing the system with another DTI that acquired the hardware from Republic of Ireland-based technology provider, eCurrency Mint Incorporated, which was selected to support CBDC project implementation.