Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell spoke before the US House Financial Services Committee. He was questioned regarding the central bank’s digital currency efforts, China, and Libra. He said that they are working hard on the digital currency.
Bank of Canada researchers do not feel that the current state of zero-knowledge-proofs is mature enough to be integrated into their development plans for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
The US acting Comptroller of the Currency disclosed that roles played by banks will soon change due to cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi).
Blockchain has been making headlines for quite some time now and banks have been widely talking about distributed ledger technology. Several financial institutions and banks have set up innovation labs to carry out proof of concepts so that to explore modern-day technology. A few days ago, Singapore’s Central Banks and JPMorgan announced that they are working on a blockchain pilot system, which is identified to have the potential to initiate multi-currency cross-border payments.
Ripple seems to be moving in silence but it has been working on bigger projects, namely on furthering central bank digital currency (CBDC) development.
The Bank of Thailand (BOT) announced its plans for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) prototype to be in effect by 2021. The BOT plans to begin the production of their prototype for a CBDC next month.
Blockchain has the potential to change the whole monetary and financial industry. But it still has a long way to go, as currently, the money issuance power is in the hands of central banks. The compromised way of welcoming blockchain technology in the monetary and financial industry are the central bank issued stablecoins - CDBC.
The Italian Banking Association, Associazione Bancaria Italiana (ABI) has decided to participate in projects and experimentations of a European central bank digital currency, recently known as the digital euro.