Today the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) published the results of a wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) trail, Project Atom, conducted with Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Perpetual and ConsenSys. The CBDC proof of concept that started late last year involved issuing the CBDC onto a blockchain-based platform for syndicated loans and enabled access to non-banks.
“Project Atom demonstrated the potential for a wholesale CBDC and asset tokenisation to improve efficiency, risk management and innovation in wholesale financial market transactions,” said RBA Assistant Governor Michele Bullock.
The primary demand for wholesale CBDCs is to use digital cash to instantly settle transactions on a DLT, delivery versus payment. An earlier trial raised questions about finality, efficiency, security and privacy, which the central bank said were addressed in the latest tests. The Project Atom PoC raised a new set of questions, including out of scope aspects such as scalability and cyber risks.
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