A Historic Pilot Journey
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) couldn’t be more thrilled to announce the triumph of their month-long multi-jurisdictional central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot program. It managed to facilitate a whopping $22 million worth of real-time cross-border transactions. That’s not just a test run; it’s more like a test sprint!
What’s Behind the Pilot?
This pilot involved heavyweights in the financial world: the central banks of Hong Kong, Thailand, China, and the United Arab Emirates joined forces with 20 commercial banks from these regions.
More than $12 million was issued onto the test platform, facilitating 164 foreign exchange transactions. Talk about an international shopping spree!
Meet mBridge: The New Kid on the Blockchain
The platform, mBridge – which stands for Multiple CBDC (mCBDC) Bridge – is part of the ambitious Project Inthanon-LionRock. Initially launched back in September 2019, this project is a collaboration between the Thai and Hong Kong central banks to explore distributed ledger technology in cross-border payments.
What Comes Next?
Now that this pilot has successfully crossed the finish line, mBridge is hitting the home stretch. It has entered its third and final stage before a minimum version of the product will be pushed to the market. Just a heads-up: no one’s putting a stamp of approval just yet; revisions are on the horizon. It’s a bit like making a perfect soufflé—hoping the mBridge will rise to the occasion once all suggested tweaks are made.
The Future of CBDCs
Looking ahead, more commercial aspects will likely be considered in future stages, according to Daniel Eidan, an adviser and solution architect at the BIS. A report in October is expected to detail the technical design, legal, policy, and regulatory considerations regarding mBridge. And as we look at the broader picture, around 90% of central banks are currently investigating CBDCs, with 11 already launched and more in the developmental pipeline!
