The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has made an announcement on the start of the live pilot of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) of Australia, which will be known as eAUD and will take place “over the next months.”
The Reserve Bank of Australia and the DFCRC began their investigation into the various applications of a CBDC in August of the previous year. As a direct consequence of this, the research project was given several use case submissions from a wide variety of industry players.
According to a statement made by the RBA, “a number of factors were examined in choosing the use cases to participate in the pilot,” one of these criteria being “the ability to give insights into the probable advantages of a CBDC.”
The Reserve Bank of Australia is working with a number of partners on the CBDC pilot program, including the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ), Mastercard, Monoova, the Australian Bond Exchange, DigiCash, the Commonwealth Bank, Canvas Digital, Unizon, Imperium Markets, and Fame Capital, amongst others.
Concerns about CBDC use cases, including as “Offline Payments, Nature-based Asset Trading, Tokenised FX Settlement, Construction Payments, Tokenised Bills, and Corporate Bond Settlement,” will be addressed by these industry participants.
At the completion of the project, a report on the results will be produced. This report will include an analysis of the several use cases that were built. According to the DFCRC, these results will add to the continuing study that is being conducted investigating the desirability and feasibility of a CBDC in Australia.
It has also been encouraging that the use case providers that have been invited to participate in the pilot span a wide range of entities in the Australian financial system, from smaller fintechs to large financial institutions, as stated by Brad Jones, Assistant Governor (Financial System) at the RBA.
“The pilot program and larger research study that will be carried out in parallel will serve two purposes,” Jones explained further. “It will contribute to hands-on learning by the industry, and it will add to the understanding of how a CBDC could potentially benefit the Australian financial system and economy.”
Compiled by Coinbold