Bermuda will test its ambitions to become a fully onchain economy at one of its most ubiquitous touchpoints: the Transport Control Department, where “everyone has to go”, as David Burt put it in an interview with The Royal Gazette today from Davos.

The Premier and Minister of Finance said the TCD has been chosen as the Government’s pilot for stablecoin payments because its relatively modern, self‑contained information technology system makes it easy to integrate, with broader roll-out to government cashiers expected to follow if the trial succeeds.

Officials are betting that starting in such a routine, high‑traffic setting will normalise digital wallets and set the stage for wider adoption across the island.

“We wanted to start somewhere small and simple,” Mr Burt said. “And the way that TCD works is its own separate system. So it’s very easy to integrate into that system, because it’s a relatively modern system.”

Over the next one to three years, the Government hopes everyday transactions will increasingly move into digital form.

“What we will see is that there will be a broader use of digital finance,” he said, pointing to people “using their phones and storing value and scanning QR codes to pay for different things” and to “merchants being able to accept payments through digital wallets without paying significant credit card fees of 4 per cent.”

On the banking side, he said securing at least one local partner willing to support the project was a prerequisite for launching it publicly.

“We do know that there is one particular bank that has been very active inside of the digital finance sector, that is involved inside of our particular activities, that is providing services to the digital asset companies that are here [Coinbase and Circle],” he said. “One of the main things that we needed was a banking partner that was willing to work for us before we could make these types of announcements.”

Neither the Bermuda Bankers Association nor any individual banks contacted by the Gazette have yet spoken publicly on the onchain pilot announcement. Neville Grant, the CEO of the association, indicated that banks are still gathering details on the strategy.

The TCD pilot builds on last year’s Digital Finance Forum, when the Government and its partners tested real‑world usage with a US dollar stablecoin.

“We did the airdrop that was there. We airdropped 50,000 USDC,” Mr Burt said. “Last year, probably about 500 persons had digital wallets and were able to get airdrops.”

For the next forum, he said the aim is 1,000 or 2,000.

“We’re trying to scale up what we did last year,” he explained.

He again emphasised that participation will not be mandatory for either residents or businesses.

“Voluntary participation is the way that the Government always approaches these particular matters. We’re not going to force and coerce anything,” he said, adding that the business community will move when it becomes easy, convenient and allows them “to access various things that they were not able to get before”.