Samsung, the South Korean tech giant, has partnered with the country’s central bank to research central bank digital currency (CBDC) offline payments.
KBS World has reported that the Bank of Korea (BOK) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Samsung on May 15th to explore offline CBDCs. This collaboration will see both organisations investigate the offline capabilities of the CBDC issued by the central bank.
Samsung partook in the BOK’s 10-month CBDC simulation experiment research phase two, which examined the retail application of CBDC. The BOK also conducted the first phase of its CBDC research, reviewing fundamental processes such as CBDC issuance, distribution, and redemption.
The new partnership is geared towards evaluating the potential for the South Korean CBDC to enable remittances and payments using near-field communication (NFC) on Samsung mobile devices without needing the internet.
Vice President of Samsung’s Electronics division, Won-Joon Choi, explained that utilising its advanced security technology in the digital currency arena is made possible by this partnership.
As part of the agreement, Samsung has acquired hardware certification for the security international common criteria evaluation assurance level six grade, which has seven levels of security functional requirements.
Despite Samsung’s interest in CBDCs, it recently prohibited the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT on Samsung-owned devices and internal networks by employees, following the uploading of “sensitive code” to the platform by a staff member. Similarly, banking majors like JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Bank of America have also restricted the use of generative AI tools.
