The Reserve Bank of Australia is collaborating with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre to launch the pilot project to explore CBDC use cases.
The Australian Central Bank is all set to launch the live pilot for the nation’s CBDC in the very near future. On March 2, the RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) stated that it will be collaborating with the DFCRC (Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre) on a research project that would explore the potential use cases and fiscal benefits of a central bank digital currency for the country.
As the joint statement from the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre suggests, the pilot is to go live in the upcoming months. As per the statement, the pilot project for the Australian CBDC will be launched on March 31, 2023, and it will conclude on May 31. The project will then release a final report on the assessments and outcomes from the pilot, which would include an evaluation of the various use cases this CBDC would spawn. The conclusive report is set to be published on June 30, 2023.
The RBA has further stated that the primary stages of this collaborative research project would involve selecting some participants from the native financial services industry to test out the use cases the Australian CBDC might have. Said use cases may include offline payments, tax automation, and ‘trusted web3 commerce’. Reportedly, the participants selected so far include banks like the Commonwealth Bank and Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) bank, and cross-border payment providers like Matercard.
Source| Australian CBDC tentative use cases and providers
Brad Jones, the assistant governor for financial systems at the RBA, has said, “The pilot and broader research study that will be conducted in parallel will serve two ends – it will contribute to hands-on learning by industry, and it will add to policymakers’ understanding of how a CBDC could potentially benefit the Australian financial system and economy.”
Notably, with the CBDC pilot announcement, Australia joins the ranks of the 114 countries across the globe that are currently exploring a CBDC. Countries to have already launched pilot projects for various central bank digital currency use cases include India and China.