Bank of Korea plans to launch central bank digital currency pilot

The Bank of Korea (BOK) has revealed plans to initiate its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot by the end of August 2021.

The first phase of the pilot, set to conclude in December 2021, will focus on research and testing of the basic functions of the CBDC, such as creating issuance and redemption of the digital won alongside secret keys and wallet functionality, Fintech Global cited to Regulation Asia.

The second phase of the pilot, planned to be finished in June 2022, will focus on concepts such as privacy-enhancing technologies, offline payments, digital asset integration and cross-border payments.

Ground X, Kakao Pay, Samsung, Onther and Kakaobank will be taking part within the pilot. The core team controlling the pilot will involve employees from Kakao Pay, Kakaobank and GroundX. Furthermore, the CBDC will be run on public blockchain Klatyn and is built on Etherum by Ground X – a technology.

This tech supports 3,000 transactions every second but will be boosted to 10,000 using scaling technology from blockchain companies Onther, Consensys and ZK crypto, the online publication added. Also, Samsung affiliates will take part in the pilot to test the functionality of the CBDC with Samsung Galaxy smartphones and examine whether offline payments can be done.