The results of Australia’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot project are scheduled to be finalized by the middle of the next year.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has published a white paper on the Australian digital dollar (eAUD) project. According to the document, the central bank digital currency pilot project is expected to be completed by mid-2023. The results will be presented to the public, after which the bank representatives will move on to the next steps of CBDC implementation.
Currently, the agency has set a task to comprehensively study the CBDC in Australia. During the pilot launch, the plan is to identify business models and scenarios for eAUD use, identify potential risks and benefits of its implementation, and work through the operational processes of digital currency circulation. The project plan is described in detail in the published document.
The RBA is inviting industry participants to work on the CBDC. Financial service providers and developers can offer their own variants of the Australian digital dollar design and scenarios of its use in the format of their own versions of eAUD tokens of the ERC-20 standard. The project participants will have to cover all expenses for developing, implementing, and testing the prototypes.
The development of the eAUD final version will be carried out by the RBA. The Digital Finance Cooperative Research Center (DFCRC) will undertake the creation of the CBDC platform. The collaboration of these organizations to work on the Australian digital dollar was announced in early August — the launch of the eAUD pilot project was also announced then.
