In September last year, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) invited businesses to participate in its central bank digital currency (CBDC) research project. It received 140 use cases by the end of October and today unveiled 15 projects that are proceeding, subject to compliance. Responding to industry demand, it will reopen applications until the end of March. A report is planned for mid-year.
Some of the major names involved in the use cases include Mastercard, Intuit, ANZ and Commonwealth Bank.
The program’s primary objective is to explore business models and use cases and their associated benefits and risks. The use cases span both retail CBDC and wholesale CBDC.
“The pilot and broader research study that will be conducted in parallel will serve two ends – it will contribute to hands-on learning by industry, and it will add to policy makers’ understanding of how a CBDC could potentially benefit the Australian financial system and economy,” said Brad Jones, Assistant Governor (Financial System) at the RBA.
| No. | Use Case Description | Use Case Lead / Consortium Partners |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Offline Payments | ANZ |
| 2. | Nature-based Asset Trading | ANZ / Commonwealth Bank |
| 3. | SuperStream Payments | ANZ / Oban |
| 4. | Corporate Bond Settlement | Australian Bond Exchange |
| 5. | Tokenised FX Settlement | Canvas Digital |
| 6. | GST Automation | Commonwealth Bank / Intuit |
| 7. | CBDC Custodial Models | digi.cash |
| 8. | Livestock Auction | Fame Capital |
| 9. | High Quality Liquid Assets Securities Trading | Imperium Markets |
| 10. | Interoperable CBDC for trusted Web3 commerce | Mastercard / Cuscal |
| 11. | Funds Custody | Monoova |
| 12. | Construction Payments | NotCentralised |
| 13. | Tokenised Bills | Unizon |
| 14. | CBDC Distribution | ANZ |
