Aruba CBDC Tracker

Aruba is in the research phase. The Centrale Bank van Aruba published a report in 2024 that “studies and discusses the fundamental importance of inclusive development for strengthening our resilience as a small island state in the throes of transformation.” More specifically, the report explores how a CBDC (referred to as a digital florin) could be used for financial inclusion.

CBDC History and Development

In 2021, the Centrale Bank van Aruba published a report that mentioned the idea of an Aruban CBDC just once in a hypothetical scenario imagining life in the year 2040.

In 2024, the Centrale Bank van Aruba published a report covering how a CBDC might be used for financial inclusion. The report specifically focused on a retail CBDC for individual Arubans to use and called for a three-tiered know-your-customer (KYC) approach, offline capability, no interest payments, permissioned distributed ledger technology, and no cross-border payments. Notably, the report says that this know-your-customer approach “has the potential to reduce the ill effects of cash usage”—eventually citing the Central Bank of Nigeria as a model to follow. However, the report also acknowledged the risks of disrupting the financial system and turning the Aruban financial system into a cybersecurity target.

Human Rights and Civil Liberties Concerns

Possibly due to its status as an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, there is little information available regarding human rights and civil liberties violations in Aruba. In fact, this status has made it difficult or impossible to collect many of the data points reported above as well. Even then, however, it’s important to recognize that the creation of a CBDC could open the door to risks to financial privacy and financial freedom.

For additional information on concerns regarding violations of human rights and civil liberties, see the following reports by Amnesty International, Financial Tyranny Index, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Privacy International, and the U.S. Department of State. For additional information on concerns regarding the risks of CBDCs, see the following webpage and report by the Cato Institute: The Risks of CBDCs and Central Bank Digital Currency: Assessing the Risks and Dispelling the Myths.

For additional information regarding metrics, the methodology page explains each of the data points and provides their respective sources.