The RBA intensifies efforts for the launch of its CBDC pilot

For their pilot program, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) are seeking submissions from members of the business community on the use cases of the pilot for central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The RBA anticipates that the “eAUD” pilot, which it has given the name “eAUD,” will show new capabilities in terms of cost, speed, and excellence.

It listed possible use cases in a white paper released on Monday, including atomic settlement of tokenized asset transactions, escrowed transactions, multi-party or syndicated transactions, enabling conditional or programmable transactions, as a verifiable reserve asset to lower counterparty risks, and for 24/7 operations.

eAUD will be liability for the RBA

For the purposes of the experiment, the eAUD will be a liability of the RBA and be valued in Australian dollars. The central bank will choose the amount to issue while taking the needs of certain use case providers into account. Notably, the RBA will not pay interest on any eAUD holdings.

It is important to note that only Australian resident individuals and Australian-registered entities will be allowed to hold eAUD. Moreover, the holders would be required to be approved and KYC-ed to participate.

The timeframe found in the white paper says that the pilot would be run from January to April 2023 with a few selected use cases. With an application deadline of October 31 for expressions of interest, it is currently consulting with business stakeholders on the organization and operation of the CBDC pilot. The pilot’s chosen use cases will be made public in December, and the actual pilot will take place from January through April of the following year. After the pilot is over, a report outlining the results will be released in mid-2023.

The RBA, which has joined the list of nations like China, Thailand, the Philippines, Jamaica, and Sweden that have or plan to have CBDC pilots in the coming year, launched its new research project examining CBDC use cases in early August.

Notably, as TheCoinRise reported, RBA launched a one-year CBDC Research Program in August this year. It also published “Project Atom” CBDC research last year, in an effort to intensify its position in the blockchain industry.