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- The Reserve Bank of Australia has partnered with two major local banks and ConsenSys to explore the potential use of Ethereum-based wholesale central bank digital currency.
- The announcement from Australia’s central bank named the other partners – Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, and the financial services company Perpetual.
- The research group will develop a “proof-of-concept (POC) for the issuance of a tokenized form of CBDC that can be used by wholesale market participants for the funding, settlement, and repayment of a tokenized syndicated loan on an Ethereum-based DLT platform.”
- The project will also focus on implementing “atomic” develiry-status payment settlements on the blockchain platform. Additionally, it will look into other potential programmability and automation features of tokenized CBDC and financial assets.
- It’s worth noting that Australia’s central bank concluded earlier this year, before the COVID-19 outbreak, that there was no merit in launching a CBDC at that time.
- RBA’s Assistant Governor Michele Bullock believes that the use cases of releasing a CBDC in the current markets are still “an open question.” Nevertheless, she noted that “we are pleased to be collaborating with industry partners to explore if there is a future role for a wholesale CBDC in the Australian payments system.”
- Bullock clarified that the bank aims to examine the “implications of a CBDC for efficiency, risk management, and innovation” before eventually considering allocating resources to launch a digital currency.
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