Hong Kong Presents Digital Currency Prototype, Project Aurum

Financial authorities successful Hong Kong person unveiled a prototype of the Chinese autonomous territory’s ain cardinal slope integer currency called Project Aurum. The two-tier level features a wholesale interbank and a retail e-wallet system, participants revealed.

Hong Kong to Issue Retail Tokens and Stablecoins arsenic Part of Project Aurum

A collaboration betwixt the BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), and the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute has produced a prototype of Hong Kong’s upcoming integer currency, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) announced.

Project Aurum is simply a full-stack, front-end and back-end, cardinal slope integer currency (CBDC) strategy comprising a wholesale interbank strategy and a retail e-wallet system, the planetary fiscal instauration explained successful a property merchandise this week.

Participants successful Aurum privation to motorboat 2 antithetic types of integer tokens. The archetypal benignant volition beryllium an intermediated integer currency portion the 2nd 1 volition beryllium a CBDC-backed stablecoin circulated successful the interbank system. The BIS remarked:

The second is unsocial successful the survey of CBDC to date. Privacy, information and flexibility are halfway to the system.

“Bringing CBDC-backed stablecoins to beingness has ne'er been done earlier and we, therefore, felt that doing truthful whitethorn supplement the increasing assemblage of probe connected backstage assemblage stablecoins,” the project’s authors elaborate. They further explicate that successful opposition with backstage stablecoins, Aurum’s stablecoin balances are reconciled, versus real-time gross colony balances of the issuing slope with the cardinal bank.

The developers judge that the strategy of CBDC-backed stablecoins tin beryllium utilized by monetary authorities erstwhile they effort to enactment retired the regulatory approaches successful respect to backstage assemblage stablecoins, “especially portion seeking to plan methods to verify the backing of the stablecoins, a highly topical matter.” Just similar with its fiat currency, 3 of Hong Kong’s fiscal institutions volition beryllium authorized to contented state-backed integer coins.

Hong Kong, 1 of the world’s large fiscal centers, has been intensifying efforts to drawback up with others connected the CBDC improvement front, including mainland China which has been expanding the integer yuan (e-CNY) pilot. The Chinese peculiar administrative portion started exploring the issuance of its ain CBDC successful March 2021.

In September of this year, the HKMA said that it was preparing to proceedings a integer mentation of the Hong Kong dollar (e-HKD) successful the coming months. The monetary authorization besides took portion successful trials of cross-border CBDC transactions with the People’s Bank of China and the cardinal banks of Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

Do you expect Hong Kong to contented its integer currency successful the adjacent future? Tell america successful the comments conception below.

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