Project Rosalind: Bank of England Investigates CBDC
The Bank of England (BoE) has taken a step forward in its plans to introduce its own central bank digital currency (CBDC), referred to as “Britcoin”, following the completion of a trial study known as Project Rosalind.
In July 2022, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Bank of England (BoE) began a collaborative endeavor to investigate the potential of implementing application programming interface (API) models in retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) transactions.
A report dated June 16th concluded that Project Rosalind’s second phase indicated that a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) could make payments between individuals more cost-effective and efficient, in addition to enabling firms to devise new financial services that help to lower fraudulent financial activity.
The study created 33 API functionalities and investigated over 30 potential applications of retail central bank digital currencies.
The study also investigated the notion of “programmability”, which is the ability to tailor digital currency to act in particular ways when certain criteria are satisfied. In addition to examining how a CBDC could work on smartphones, retail outlets and web stores, this was looked into.
Many have expressed doubt concerning the programmability of CBDCs, with detractors asserting that a CBDC could be coded to act adversely towards its users.
The research ultimately determined that a “well-crafted” API layer would enable a central bank to collaborate with the private sector in order to “securely supply” retail CBDC payments.
“The Rosalind experiment has been a groundbreaking development in central bank innovation, exploring the potential of an API layer to support a retail CBDC system and enabling safe and secure CBDC payments through a variety of use cases,” commented Francesca Road, Head of the BIS London Innovation Hub, in a press release.
Despite the positive results of Project Rosalind, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, Jon Cunliffe, stated that the ultimate determination as to whether the nation will introduce a Central Bank Digital Currency is still “several years” away.
Privacy Considerations and Probability of Success
Privacy should be taken into account when exploring the potential of a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) – according to a Treasury official.
At the Politico Global Tech Day conference, Cunliffe estimated the probability of a CBDC project being successful at “seven out of ten”, according to a Bloomberg report from June 16.
Quant Network’s Involvement and Implications
On the day that the outcomes from Project Rosalind were made public, Quant Network, an enterprise blockchain, declared its part as a provider in the investigation. This declaration caused the value of QNT (QNT), Quant’s native token, to jump 20% from $96 to $117 in a span of 12 hours.
The magazine states that Bitcoin is heading towards the goal of achieving “Net Zero” promises.
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