Bank of Korea and Ground X Sign Contract for CBDC Pilot Experiment

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Eunbyeol] The Bank of Korea announced on the 28th that it has signed a contract with Ground X regarding the central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot research project.

The two parties plan to commence the CBDC pilot project from the 23rd of next month.

The CBDC pilot research project will proceed in a phase focused on verifying technical feasibility and applying new technologies. In the first phase, by the end of the year, a CBDC usage environment will be created in a virtual space, establishing an issuance system including manufacturing, issuance, redemption, and management of electronic wallets for participating institutions. This involves setting up the pilot experiment environment and checking the basic functions of the CBDC. In the virtual environment, experiments will be conducted to implement basic functions for private sector-led CBDC circulation, such as user electronic wallet management, exchange with deposits, remittance, and payment settlements.

The second phase will continue until June next year. This phase will expand CBDC circulation tasks such as cross-border remittances, digital asset purchases, and offline payments, and establish compliance measures for related regulations. Privacy issues will also be examined. The applicability of new technologies related to CBDC, such as privacy technologies and distributed ledger scalability technologies, will be assessed.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.