Reserve Bank of Australia's Exploration of Central Bank Digital Currency with Partners

The customer in this case is the Reserve Bank of Australia, the country's central bank. The RBA conducts monetary policy, works to maintain a strong financial system and issues the nation's banknotes. The RBA provides certain banking services as required to the Australian Government and its agencies, and to a number of overseas central banks and official institutions. Additionally, it manages Australia's gold and foreign exchange reserves. Through this project, the RBA is seeking to explore the potential use and implications of a wholesale form of central bank digital currency using distributed ledger technology.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is keen to explore the potential use and implications of a wholesale form of central bank digital currency (CBDC) using distributed ledger technology (DLT). The challenge lies in the development of a proof-of-concept (POC) for the issuance of a tokenised form of CBDC that can be used by wholesale market participants for the funding, settlement, and repayment of a tokenised syndicated loan on an Ethereum-based DLT platform. The RBA aims to understand the implications of 'atomic' delivery-versus-payment settlement on a DLT platform as well as other potential programmability and automation features of tokenised CBDC and financial assets.

To address this challenge, the RBA has partnered with Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, Australia-based financial services firm, Perpetual, and Consensys. The project will be delivered in the coming months and is expected to be completed around the end of 2020. Consensys, a leader in developing blockchain-based solutions, will lead the implementation of this transformational industry project by leveraging its technical expertise and its digital assets product stack, comprising Consensys Quorum, Codefi Assets, and Codefi Orchestrate. These tools will be instrumental in streamlining record and document management, settlement, servicing and payments. The parties intend to publish a report on the project and its main findings during the first half of 2021.

• The operational results of this project are not yet available as the project is still ongoing. However, the project is expected to provide significant insights into the potential use and implications of a wholesale form of central bank digital currency (CBDC) using distributed ledger technology (DLT). The proof-of-concept being developed will explore the implications of 'atomic' delivery-versus-payment settlement on a DLT platform as well as other potential programmability and automation features of tokenised CBDC and financial assets. These insights will be valuable in shaping the future of digital currency in Australia and potentially worldwide.