The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has announced that it will begin work on a new blockchain-powered tokenization incentive, and will intensify its central bank digital currency (CBDC) operations by launching a new platform.
In a press release and presentation materials shared with Cryptonews.com, the BIS stated that its Innovation Hub unit would this year channel its efforts through its Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong-based centers, with the latter taking charge of a new project that would see the BIS develop “a distributed ledger technology prototype for distribution of tokenized green bonds to retail investors.”
The project will focus on eco-friendly bond offerings and has been named “Tokenization Green Bonds.” The BIS called the project “a prototype for studying the applicability and scalability of tokenized retail bonds.”
“The aim,” wrote the BIS, “is to assess whether and how to pursue the introduction of tokenized green bonds in small denominations for retail investors.”
And the BIS is looking to step up its work in the sphere of CBDCs in 2021, too.
The Innovation Center declared its intention to launch a “technological research project and associated prototype(s)” for what it termed as “tiered retail CBDC distribution architectures.”
The Hong Kong-based center will also work on gauging “the benefits and challenges of tiered architectures for distribution of retail CBDC through commercial banks and payment service providers.” And it hopes to do so by looking at two models in particular: hybrid CBDCs and “private, CBDC-backed” stablecoins.
Meanwhile, its Singapore-based team will spend its time looking into CBDC interoperability solutions. The BIS wrote that this would involve creating a platform for “settling cross-border payments using multiple” CBDCs and “explore the creation of an international settlement platform onto which central banks would issue multiple wholesale CBDCs.”
This, the organization said, would allow banks and payment providers to buy, exchange, transact and redeem a range of different CBDC tokens.
As reported, in December, the BIS introduced what it termed Project Helvetia, claiming that it is now looking at two proof-of-concept models that it had tested by issuing a Swiss franc wholesale CBDC “onto a near-live [distributed ledger technology-powered] test platform.”
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Source: Cryptonews
