Hong Kong has accomplished the primary pilot section of its central financial institution digital forex (CBDC), the digital Hong Kong greenback (e-HKD). The Hong Kong Financial Authority (HKMA) is now getting ready for the second section of the CBDC pilot program.
The Pilot, which began in November 2022, evaluated the CBDC’s business viability as a part of Hong Kong’s Fintech 2025 implementation technique.
The HKMA To Discover Extra Use Cases For e-HKD
In accordance with the preliminary report, the section 1 pilot assessed e-HKD utility in six key areas. These areas included programmable funds, full-fledged funds, offline funds, Web3-based transactions settlements, tokenized deposits, and tokenized assets-based settlements.
The most recent report outlined tokenization, programmability, and atomic settlement as the first areas the place the e-HKD will profit companies and shoppers.
Moreover, the HKMA stated the second section of the e-HKD pilot will consolidate the achievement from Phase 1. Throughout section 2, the HKMA will discover extra use circumstances for the CBDC. Additionally, it is going to analysis extra on these use circumstances that proved promising for the e-HKD functions in the course of the first trial. Concerning the tech concerns for the CBDC, the HKMA would possibly make use of a distributed ledger technology-based design. The reason being that distributed ledger expertise presents interoperability and excessive scalability, key qualities wanted for the potential implementation of the e-HKD.
In accordance with the flowchart above, Hong Kong’s e-HKD undertaking includes a three-rail strategy. These embody basis layer improvement, iterative enhancements and trade pilots, and full launch.
Presently, the CBDC program is on the second rail, with assist from private and non-private organizations. The intention is to make sure that the CBDC is commercially viable for personal and public organizations.
Additional, the Financial Authority famous that it will proceed engaged on the rail-1 packages, which contain laying out technical and authorized frameworks for the e-HKD.
The HKMA’s Stance On The mBridge Multi-CBDC Platform
In the meantime, in addition to the native CBDC initiatives, the Financial institution of Worldwide Settlement (BIS) launched Project mBridge in 2021. For context, Mission mBridge is a multi-CBDC platform to facilitate cross-border funds.
This can be a collaborative effort by the HKMA, banks of China, Thailand, the UAE, and the BIS Progressive Hub. The only real intention of launching the initiative is to create sooner, extra clear, and cheaper cross-border fee options utilizing the mBridge Ledger.
Apart from the founding central banks of China, Thailand, Hong Kong, and the UAE, a number of business banks have joined the undertaking.
As of September 25, Eddie Yue, CEO of the HKMA, stated mBridge is turning into commercialized. The growth allowed new member monetary establishments from Hong Kong, China, the UAE, and Thailand.
Yue urged extra central banks to hitch the mBride platform. Additionally, he introduced that they may quickly launch a brand new product tagged at least viable product. In accordance with the HKMA CEO, this new product goals to foster the gradual commercialization of mBridge.
In accordance with the BIS October 2023 report, a pilot is ongoing to analyze the mBridge’s technological and sensible feasibility.
Featured picture from Shutterstock and chart from TradingView.com
