BIS: “The first CBDC pilot project has been successfully completed.”

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The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) announced as part of the creation of a multi-platform for international payments called Inthanon-LionRock to mBridge, “The first pilot project of CBDC has been successfully completed.” Below we will analyse best crypto projects to invest in.

A little about the project.

Twenty banks participated in the Inthanon-LionRock to mBridge project, including the BIS Hong Kong Innovation Center, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Bank of Thailand, the Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates.

The program ran from August 15 to September 23, where mCBDC (a common prototype of digital currencies) showed the potential of using digital currencies and distributed ledger technology (DLT). The goal of the project is to provide more secure and cheaper cross-border transactions.

mBridge is the name of the technological platform of the distributed register, which is a bridge with several CBDC and was developed exclusively for this project.

More than 12 million U.S. dollars were issued for the pilot program to provide 164 cross-border settlements and currency exchange transactions. The total amount of transactions of the participating banks was more than 22 million U.S. dollars.

The overall prototype mCBDC settlement platform was able to implement international transfers and foreign exchange transactions in seconds. At the same time, for today’s network of commercial banks, it usually takes several days to complete a transaction. Also, the participating banks claim in their report that transaction costs could be cut in half.

How did the project begin?

The first phase of the Inthanon-LionRock project developed a proof-of-concept (PoC) prototype and extended DLT capabilities for CBDC evaluation.

The first participants in the project, which began with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in May 2019 and ended in December 2019, were the central banks of Thailand and Hong Kong. A press release was held in January 2020.  

The project was created to explore the feasibility of using CBDC in cross-border payment programs.

The second phase of the project. Creation of mBridge.

Source: BIS

The second phase of the project began in February 2021, when the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) and the People’s Bank of China Digital Currency Institute (PBC DCI) joined banks in Hong Kong and Thailand.

The Innovation Center of the Bank for International Settlements in Hong Kong also took part in the second phase of the project.

At the end of 2021, the mCBDC, a common prototype for multiple cryptocurrencies, was created to implement international transfers and currency exchange transactions almost instantaneously and with the ability to reduce the cost of cross-border transactions by 50 percent.

A BIS report is expected next month, outlining the mBridge roadmap, technical design of the project, and regulatory and policy details.

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