RBA Partners With Perpetual, Consensys, And Others To Study CBDCs

In a press release, the Reserve Bank Of Australia Stated that they would be joining forces with Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Perpetual, and ConsenSys Software in order to perform further research into the use of a wholesale CBDC.

Research Continues Despite Prior Reservations

This comes in the wake of an announcement in September that RBA will probably not be developing a CBDC – then recanting and continuing to study.

Whether this is due to banks in countries such as China, Germany, and the USA continuing research – the Chinese going so far as to test the digital yuan by handing out free digital currency to some Shenzhen residents – or a simple change of heart, it seems an Australian CBDC is being looked into more seriously than before.

The RBA hopes to develop a POC (proof-of-concept) system to create tokens for their tentative CBDC. This CBDC would be used for funding, settlement, and loan repayment by companies and individuals buying or selling products and services in wholesale qualities.

Like many other new cryptocurrencies, the new Aussie CBDC would be based on the Ethereum blockchain as a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) system.

Assistant Governor Michele Bullock stated that while the use of a CBDC remains up in the air, the interest by commercial partners in national cryptocurrencies has been noted.

“With this project, we are aiming to explore the implications of a CBDC for efficiency, risk management, and innovation in wholesale financial market transactions. While the case for the use of a CBDC in these markets remains an open question, we are pleased to be collaborating with industry partners to explore if there is a future role for a wholesale CBDC in the Australian payments system.”

The research should be done by the end of 2020, and the study group plans to release its results within the first half of 2021.