Today blockchain developer Soramitsu Labs said it is developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) demonstration project for Papua New Guinea. Soramitsu is known as the developer of Cambodia’s Project Bakong, the national payment system that leverages DLT.
While most developing economy CBDCs target financial inclusion, Papua New Guinea has an unusual objective. The level of crime is high and sometimes involves violence. So one of the CBDC goals is to provide a record of ownership of the digital currency. That way, if it’s stolen it may be feasible to recover it.
Soramitsu Labs has performed CBDC research or demonstration experiments in Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Fijii and the Solomon Islands. It also recently landed a bond issuance project for Palau.
Given its experience with Pacific island nations, it observed that the cost of each of them developing financial systems is sometimes prohibitive. As a more cost effective approach, Soramitsu Labs plans to develop a common blockchain platform that all the island nations could use, including for CBDC and savings bonds.
Soramitsu was the original developer of the open source Hyperledger Iroha blockchain, and has used the same blockchain technology for all the projects mentioned here, although the company also has several public blockchain initiatives.
