Newly elected Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, who assumed office only a week ago has criticized a project that had offered to create a crypto-currency for indigenous people and revealed that plans to advance that project had been shelved.
Bolsonaro also stated that his administration was soon going to open a “blackbox” which is a reference to a plane’s flight recorder- of contracts and projects by the country’s economic development bank BNDES which is state-owned, as well as other institutions.
According to a local daily, Estadao, the country’s immediate former president Michel Temer, had overseen a deal struck between the National Indian Foundation and the Fluminense federal university that would have seen the development of a crypto related project. The project required funding of about $11.7 million from the national budget
According to local crypto publication, Portal do Bitcoin, the contract among other things related to the project would have seen the creation of coin that would circulate among the indigenous population of the country. A report that detailed the feasibility study as well as the coin’s platform development accompanied the project’s budget.
According to Brazilian publication, O Globo, the project got suspended on Jan 3 , with the new government citing irregularities surrounding the issuing of the contract as well as the lack of technical analysis, such as a detailed description of the project.
The government asserted that the contract had been signed too soon without a proper legal bidding process and was also quite expensive.
BNDES, the bank responsible for the country’s long term projects will likely play a key role in the new government’s plans. Crypto-publication, Cointelegraph had reported mid last month, that the bank was plotting to launch a stable coin that would be linked to the Brazilian Real, in order to track money transactions and to enable money transactions. It is not clear whether these plans have been shelved as well.
