The Reserve Bank of Australia is joining the Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) race to explore CBDC use cases in the country. It will collaborate with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Center (DFCRC) in a respective research project.
As announced on Tuesday, the joint project of the Reserve Bank and the DFCRC will focus on “use cases and innovative business models” that could be supported by the issuance of a CBDC. Technological, legal and regulatory considerations will also be assessed over the course of the project.
The pilot project will last approximately one year and will take the form of a CBDC operating in a limited environment.. Sector stakeholders will be invited to develop specific use cases, which will then be evaluated by the Bank and DFCRC. The selected cases will participate in the pilot, which will lead to a special report.
The Reserve Bank plans to publish the document with more details about the project in the coming months. As Michele Bullock, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank, stated:
“This project is an important step in our CBDC research. We look forward to collaborating with a wide range of industry players to better understand the potential benefits that a CBDC could bring to Australia.”
The DFCRC is a $180 million research program funded by industry partners, universities and the Australian Government, which aims to bring together stakeholders from the financial industry, academia and regulatory sectors to develop the opportunities arising from next transformation of the financial markets.
On Friday, the Bank of Thailand announced the two-year retail CBDC pilot project, which should start in late 2022.
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