BDL has been considering a digital currency since 2017 following the rise of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and is apparently set to launch it in 2021, according to Governor Riad Salameh. The digital currency is destined exclusively for local use and aimed at easing payment methods but given the economic crisis we’re going through, one has to wonder what’s the purpose of wasting time and money on such a project.

How will a digital currency restore confidence in the banking sector and transition into a cashless system? Who cares if our money is digital or not, when it’s devaluated and worthless now? And what difference will it make how I withdraw or use money when I’m bound by ridiculous limits?

More importantly, does BDL have the infrastructure to support such a system? And if yes, how is he paying to maintain them? By using our dollars? Digitizing the national currency will definitely require tons of servers and maintenance, all that need to be billed in dollars to foreign companies.

So in other words, BDL somehow found a way to waste more money at a time where all Lebanese are praying day and night that their lifelong savings haven’t vanished yet.