DCash, the Digital Currency issued by the ECCB (Eastern Caribbean Central Bank) Is a pioneering effort with good intentions. Here is the background, covering how it was studied carefully, piloted in March 2019, had its first live transaction in February 2021, rolled out in March 2021, expanded in July 2021 and then, on January 14, 2022, went dead. Not just down for a few hours ... or days ... or weeks ... but long enough for any sensible person to completely give up on it. Then the ECCB announced that DCash would be back soon, and then announced that it was alive and well. The ECCB is lah-dee-dah, yes we had an "interruption" in service, but we're back better than ever!
What if someone stole your wallet and kept it from you for nearly two months? Why would any sane person convert real money to DCash if it can suddenly be stolen and held hostage for months? And not by criminals, but by the bank!
The ECCB is keeping the facts of this disaster largely hidden. I've quoted and analyzed what little they said at the time of the crash here.
Pre-announcing the Resumption
A couple days before they resumed service, ECCB announced that DCash was coming back. To regain trust and for the sake of transparency, you would think they would tell us what actually happened. Nope.
Here's their explanation:
In January 2022, the DCash system experienced its first interruption since its launch in March 2021. As a result, the processing of new transactions on the DCash network was halted. This interruption was not caused by any external intervention. The security and integrity of all DCash data, applications and architecture, including all central bank, financial institutions, merchant and wallet apps remain secure and intact.
Following the interruption, the ECCB took the opportunity to undertake several upgrades to the DCash platform including enhancing the system’s certificate management processes – the initial cause of the interruption, and updating the version of Hyperledger Fabric, the foundation of the DCash platform. These upgrades have further strengthened the robust security mechanisms, which ultimately underpin the DCash technology, resulting in a more resilient product.
It "experienced its first interruption." Passive voice. Where did the "interruption" come from? Who did it? Why?
"As a result, the processing of new transactions on the DCash network was halted." As a result of what?? The processing "was halted" by whom?? The ECCB?
"This interruption was not caused by any external intervention." This implies no hacking. It was internal. Either a bad insider or something awful with the software that had (presumably) been running for months.
So they went about several "upgrades" -- not bug fixes or corrections. Then we get to "enhancing the system's certificate management process." Certificates are NOT about digital currency, they are standard web things, as I explained. And they "updated the version of Hyperledger Fabric," a standard library for blockchain. Updating to latest versions should be part of normal systems maintenance. It's not something that takes weeks! You do the upgrade, test it, run it in parallel with your current production system to assure it works, and then you seamlessly switch over. Groups large and small do this all the time. It's standard practice. Only creaky old organizations firmly anchored in the past would take a system down for hours to perform maintenance. Even they wouldn't dare take a system down for even a week!
What's the result? ECCB has now "further strengthened the robust security mechanisms ... resulting in a more resilient product." Wow. The security mechanisms either had a fault or they didn't. The claim is that it took nearly two months to create a "more resilient product." A product that had been running live for nearly a year.
Announcing the Resumption
Next ECCB declared as promised that DCash was back. They provided no further explanation:
As part of the restoration, the platform now benefits from several upgrades including an enhanced certificate management process and an updated version of the software which provides the foundation for the DCash system. Extensive testing and assurance exercises were conducted prior to restoration of the platform to ensure full functionality of the service in accordance with quality assurance specifications.
Certificate management is standard internet stuff. It has nothing to do with crypto. Why wouldn’t they already have had the latest version working as part of their system? No excuse! If they just needed to upgrade, why not do it the way everyone does? They claim to “enhance” the certificate management process. Something unique for ECCB? Bad idea.
Hyperledger fabric. Similar claims, same response.
They claim DCash is now “more resilient.” But there were no crashes during many months of operation. Therefore (according to them) DCash was already perfectly resilient.
They're hiding something. What is it??
Apps for Digital Transfer
You don't need a CBDC like DCash to quickly, easily, safely, cheaply and electronically move money around. In fact, we're all better off if central banks just ignored the whole issue. Here's my analysis of the situation, talking about a potential CBDC for the US that no one needs and describing how Venmo and CashApp work and are broadly accepted.
The ECCB made strong claims about the benefits DCash was going to bring. All benefits that are in production and use by over 100 million people, operated by private companies without a CBDC. Nonetheless they went ahead. And crashed. And clearly lie about it. What's going on??
The DCash App
As a brand-new currency, DCash needs an app. It's something the ECCB largely ignores on their self-promotional website. I wonder if there's anything to learn by digging into the DCash app? It turns out there is! Following is what I discovered.
I figured they must have a wallet app for Android. I went to the Google Play store and found the app:
Sure enough, that's the wallet. But look over there on the upper right. 40 reviews, 2 stars out of 5. That's awful!
Let's look at some of them. Sadly, Google won't give them in time order.
The first review wasn't until March 27, 5 stars.
On Aug 15 we get 1 star with the comment "Bad." No response from ECCB. Aug 31 there is 3 stars with "*yu" as the comment. No response from ECCB. Mostly it's 1 star reviews, one after the other, many with thumbs-up ratings for the badness of the review.
Months later, Dec 12, we get 2 stars and "Efgy." And a response from ECCB!
Look more closely. The review was posted Dec 12 and the response was posted nearly a month later!! Really staying on top of things, aren't they?
I see they've got a special domain for feedback. This is the first I've seen of it. You would think it would be on the main site, wouldn't you? Let's check it out. I put the support site URL in my browser and this is the result:
No, I didn't type it wrong. Even though DCash is supposedly up and running just fine, the support site isn't just broken -- it's not there! The domain doesn't exist!!
Things are clearly just awful for the Android app. I wonder how it is for iPhone -- maybe it's wonderful? Here's the preview of the DCash app on the Apple App store:
Only 5 ratings vs. the 40 ratings for Android. What's clear is that Apple users are MUCH more generous than Android. The review by Waps7777 in Dec 2021 gave it 3 stars even though "DCrash not DCash. The app crashes every time is send a payment."
Conclusion
We still have no idea what happened with DCash. But it's pretty clear from the App store comments that the currency should be called DCrash. The announcements of ECCB say nothing about the apps. The people in charge are, as usual with people in charge, going to great length to hide problems and declare wonderfulness. But with the evidence on the table to date, DCrash is a disaster and should be shut down. If the authorities cared about real human beings other than themselves, they would apologize, shut down DCash, and make a deal with Zelle, Venmo, CashApp or someone who has a track record of real success to improve the lives of the people in the EC nations.
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