Key Points
- The Bank of England has researched with help from the Bank of International Settlements, finding out that digital Central Bank coins could make peer-to-peer payments faster.
- This research is a step closer to BoE’s launch of a CBDC named “Britcoin”.
Brits are set to receive Britcoin, a Central Bank Controlled Digital Currency (CBDC), as the Bank of England gets wowed by the potential of digital currencies. Following a successful trial study called Project Rosalind, BoE is more confident than ever in the functionality of Britcoin.
Brits to get “Britcoin” eventually
Project Rosalind is a study concluded by the BoE and the Bank of International Settlements that seeks to understand the place of a CBDC in a digital economy. It was used to evaluate how effective a CBDC would be in running the U.K. economy and assisting citizens in their usual day-to-day activities. It has been completed and achieved amazing results for the Bank of England.
Therefore, BoE plans to launch a CBDC of its own. This coin is to be named “Britcoin” after the words “British and coin”. This coin would not be the only one of its kind. China already uses a digital Yuan, with the U.S. and Russia researching theirs.
In addition to how Britcoin could be used by citizens digitally, the Rosalind Study also dived into the concept of “programmability” That means the U.K. government will get to program the coin to behave in a certain way when given conditions are met.
“The Rosalind experiment has advanced central bank innovation in two key areas: by exploring how an API layer could support a retail CBDC system and how it could facilitate safe and secure CBDC payments through a range of different use cases,” said Francesca Road, head of the BIS London Innovation Hub in a press release.
However, despite a successful study on Project Rosalind, BoE Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said that the decision on the introduction of a CBDC in the economy remains years away. This information is similar to the one offered regarding a digital dollar.
Last week, a treasury official expressed that it will take more than designing and using a digital dollar to harmonize the digital and traditional economies. The official said there are still some fears about things like the collapse of banks that keep the digital dollar launch decision years away though research will continue. Keep watching Fintech Express for updates on this and other Fintech-related developments.