Cryptocurrencies have now become mainstream. More and more people are starting to talk about it and more and more those interested in knowing how it works. Will they ever replace current currencies? According to the Swedish central bank, yes and they are already preparing for this revolution.
Indeed, the Swedish central bank continues to take steps towards modeling its e-krona pilot project. These days it has released a detailed report of the results of phase one of the path it is following. Riksbank is still optimistic about the launch of the central bank's digital currency (CBDC), but there are hurdles to overcome along the way.
Riksbank will spend another year exploring solutions for the pilot project
According to the report called "E-krona pilot phase 1", the central bank has shown that the use of cash in Sweden is "decreasing". That said, Riksbank sees potential problems arising from the decline in cash and is therefore conducting a pilot project to study the possibility of producing a digital complement to cash ”.
However, the central bank wants to spend another year carrying out in-depth explorations to assess how current technical solutions might fit the e-krona project. Currently, the Swedish central bank uses R3's Corda blockchain platform.
During the additional year required, Riksbank wants "market players" to be involved in the development of the plan, "who could potentially become participants in an e-krona network, to test this technical solution," the report said.
Such a statement could suggest that private companies and even commercial banks could participate in the Swedish CBDC pilot project.
Another point mentioned in the report is the development of an “offline function”. The central bank has provided details on the matter: “The possibility of making offline payments is a priority, as mentioned above, and will be further investigated. During phase one, we only did a theoretical analysis of the possibilities of the solution. During phase two, an off-line solution with local storage of keys and tokens will be implemented and used in further tests that can provide knowledge of the possibilities and limitations of the solution ”.
Riksbank wants to explore integration with existing point of sale terminals
In addition, the Riksbank wants to explore ways to develop solutions to store keys and tokens "in different ways", containing the e-Krona.
In addition, to ensure "the process of making payments in the network", the Swedish central bank wants to develop support for routing payments.
Other details cited by Riksbank in the report include "the assessment and improvement of performance and scalability in the e-krona network", "integration with existing point of sale terminals" and "analysis of the network infrastructure e-krona ".
Interestingly, Bloomberg called this report "the most advanced exploration of a post-cash era to be undertaken by a major Western economy."
What do you think of this report released by Riksbank on the pilot project to distribute an e-krona? Let us know in the comments section below your thoughts.
