Samsung confirms participation in Bank of Korea CBDC pilot

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Samsung Electronics has confirmed it will take part in a central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot project being spearheaded by the Bank of Korea.

The pilot, which began at the end of July, aims to build a platform for supporting a central bank digital currency in Korea, and is being co-managed by Kakao subsidiary Ground X.

A Samsung executive close to the matter said the company would focus on researching practical issues around use of the central bank digital currency in practice.

“Samsung Electronics has recently decided to participate in the BOK-led CBDC pilot project, under which interested parties will research the practicalities of the CBDC in a test environment.”

The Samsung leg of the pilot will also look at the specific issues of remittances and money transfers, providing crucial research for shaping how the eventual platform will function.

“Specifically, the Kakao consortium and Samsung Group’s two tech affiliates will launch a pilot program aimed at checking on money transfers and remittances between countries, issuing and distributing the CBDC and monitoring how that eventually works in virtual environments.”

There are also plans to test the core functionality on the Samsung Galaxy smartphone, which will help identify core issues and problems with using the platform for phone-to-phone remittances.

“Will it be possible to conduct payments via mobile phones using the digital currency with no internet availability, or to send CBDC remittances to other mobile phones or to other connected bank accounts, are the two core points that Samsung is looking at.”

The pilot scheme has been set up with a view to shaping the infrastructure for an eventual rollout of a central bank digital currency in Korea.

Samsung joins a number of other high profile Korean companies on the project, which is set to run for a period of up to two years.

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.

Watch: CoinGeek Zurich panel, Digital Technology and the Future of Banking & Financial Services