The Bank of Korea (BOK) is gearing up to launch a aviator programme involving 100,000 participants successful aboriginal April to trial its cardinal slope integer currency (CBDC) successful real-world transactions.
Project Hangang, a three-month inaugural moving done the extremity of June, involves 7 South Korean banks, including KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, NH NongHyup, BNK Busan Bank, and the Industrial Bank of Korea.
Participants volition person deposits from accepted slope accounts into deposit tokens, which tin beryllium utilized for regular purchases astatine selected merchants done banking apps that utilize QR codification payments. Individual token holdings volition beryllium capped astatine 1 cardinal won (~$690), with a cumulative worth of 5 cardinal won for the aviator duration.
Per Korea Times, participating merchants see 7-Eleven, Hanaro Mart, Kyobo Bookstore, and Ediya Coffee, alongside online platforms specified arsenic Hyundai Home Shopping. The inaugural is structured to measure the viability of CBDCs successful simplifying existent outgo and colony systems, perchance reducing transaction fees by enabling real-time merchant settlements.
The BOK plans to publically solicit participants for Project Hangang aboriginal this month. According to a BOK authoritative cited by Korea Times, the aviator aims to minimize intermediary roles wrong transactions, thereby assessing the applicable efficiencies of a CBDC exemplary implicit accepted banking processes.
This real-world investigating signifier builds upon South Korea’s anterior CBDC research initiatives and marks a important measurement toward CBDC integration into regular economical activity. The aviator aligns with broader planetary efforts spearheaded by institutions similar the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), projecting wide adoption of CBDCs successful some retail and wholesale capacities by 2030.
The experimentation represents an escalation from theoretical modeling to applicable application, situating South Korea among an expanding radical of countries actively evaluating the viability of CBDCs for retail use.
The station Bank of Korea to springiness 100,000 users entree to CBDC successful real-world pilot appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.