In September the Korean press reported that the central bank was preparing for a tokenized deposit trial targeting around 100,000 people. It follows the Bank of Korea announcing formal plans for such a trial a year ago, in combination with a wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) for interbank settlement. Yesterday the central bank signed an agreement with the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) and the Financial Services Commission (FSC) for the usability tests.
In June MSIT and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) awarded a budget to the Bank of Korea to develop a voucher program using smartphones, where the vouchers can be used to purchase welfare, culture, education and other goods and services.
Hence, the central bank has developed a digital voucher management platform which aims to address the complexities of settlement relating to paper vouchers and the potential for fraud. Based on previous disclosures, the vouchers will use Singapore’s purpose bound money (PBM) model, which essentially wraps the deposit token in a smart contract which defines the token’s conditions of use.
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