By Nathan Ferguson
The Korean central bank has effectively carried out the initial stage of the pilot project for its CBDC (central bank digital currency) which was commenced in the August of the recent year. It was stated by the South Korean central bank that the primary (mock testing) stage of the country’s CBDC was completed in December whereas the second stage is under progress, as reported by YNA news.
The initial portion of the respective mock test comprises the fundamental operations of the country’s independent digital currency like insurance and distribution. The second stage of the CBDC pilot would take account of the operations dealing with the real world like cross-border recompenses, offline payments, and retail payments. It was mentioned by the bank that The respective step would perform several operations including offline settlements, as well as the latest technologies’ application, among which privacy protection is also included for the second stage of the pilot test.
BOK (Bank of Korea) has additionally pursued the onboard financial organizations for the second stage, just like what is presently being done by China with the digital yuan thereof. Nonetheless, dissimilar to China, the privacy of the consumers would also be the center of focus in the digital currency issued by the Korean Central Bank. The completion of the second stage would expectedly occur during this year’s June, following which the strategy of the Central Bank is to carry out the official launch as well as commercialization strategies of its CBDC.
That is why South Korea has participated in the select team of the nations that either have commenced with or accomplished their CBDCs’ pilot testing. According to the information provided on the behalf of the Atlantic Council, at present, nearly 91 countries are operating on their Independent digital currencies whereas just 14 of them have come across the pilot stage. Now, the position of South Korea is that of being among the prominent crypto-compliant countries around the globe.
The country has recently disclosed the intention thereof for turning into a frontrunner in the field of the metaverse additionally. Even though China is leading the world of CBDC, during recent months, however considerable progress has been shown by several Asian and European countries in advancing their development strategies to remain an active part of this world.