Here’s how Bank of Korea’s CBDC pilot is taking shape, as explained by blockchain exec

The Bank of Korea, the central bank of South Korea, is known to be among the major global central banks actively considering its options for issuing a central bank digital currency.

Now, with the announcement the bank has partnered with Kakao subsidiary Ground X to develop the pilot scheme, more details are beginning to emerge around what the currency trials could look like.

In an interview with Forbes, Junsik Sim, CEO of blockchain company Onther, which is participating in the trial, shed more light on the plans that are taking shape. Sim said a number of companies were already involved in the project and would be conducting different roles around the pilot scheme.

“Kakao Bank, Kakao Pay, and GroundX: The core team, made up of employees from these three companies, which are under the umbrella of Kakao, will provide development and integration into its already deployed users apps/payments. S-Core will work on CBDC issuance. Samsung Galaxy/Konai will work on making offline payments possible. Dream Security will focus on the digital wallets. Samsung SDS and KPMG provide business advisory. Onther, Consensys and ZK crypto will provide scaling technology.”

On the role of Onther, Sim said it would be involved in helping the pilot reach the required scale of circulation for the digital currency.

“Onther will focus on utilizing its rollup technology to increase the scalability of the CBDC. So we will be involved in optimizing the circulation of the token, and the total number of users the CBDC will support.”

The pilot is to take part over two stages, with the initial basic testing phase set to conclude by December of this year. A second phase, which will put the currency through its paces across a more diverse range of considerations, is set to take place over the period to June 2022, before the central bank digital currency could be eligible for a wider rollout.

To learn more about central bank digital currencies and some of the design decisions that need to be considered when creating and launching it, read nChain’s CBDC playbook.

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