The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said it will run a pilot program for its own central bank digital currency (CBDC). The trial will be undertaken by the RBA in collaboration with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) and the Australian Treasury.
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The program will happen over the course of a year and will see the development of a “limited-scale” CBDC in a “ring-fenced” environment. It aims to explore the potential use cases and economic benefits of a digital currency.
Various industry participants will be invited to develop real-world applications of the CBDC for both consumers and businesses. The RBA added that more details of the project’s objectives and approach will be published in the next few months.
Andreas Furche, CEO of the DFCRC, acknowledged that central bank digital currencies were already proven to be technologically feasible.
The RBA joins several other central banks that are pushing for CBDC adoption. In the US, the Federal Reserve is conducting research to understand the benefits and drawbacks of the new technology. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank is currently in the investigation phase for its digital euro.
China was the first country to put a CBDC into real-world use. The country first rolled out the pilot of its digital yuan in 2019, with the program now running in more than 20 cities. In the first five months of 2022, transactions using the CBDC reached US$12.3 billion.
See also: Are state-backed digital currencies a game-changer?
Editing by Miguel Cordon and Lorenzo Kyle Subido
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