Papua New Guinea’s central bank successfully completes CBDC trial with Japan’s Soramitsu
The Bank of Papua New Guinea, in partnership with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Tokyo-based fintech Soramitsu, has completed a proof of concept (PoC) for its proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC), named the Digital Kina.
Papua New Guinea moves closer to launching a CBDC
The trial leveraged Soramitsu’s blockchain technology supported by the SORA v3 Hub Chain, an international platform powered by the open-source Hyperledger Iroha 2 blockchain.
According to a Soramitsu statement translated from Japanese, the PoC involved the creation of a “secure payment infrastructure that could operate 24 hours a day and demonstrated instantaneous payments and international remittances”.
The pilot saw users in the central bank and local businesses in Port Moresby, the country’s capital, conduct real-time payments and P2P remittances through a mobile app, successfully testing security features like fund recovery for instances of theft or loss.
Elizabeth Genia, governor of the Central Bank of Papua New Guinea, says: “The CBDC proof of concept is an important step to improve the cost and efficiency of Papua New Guinea’s financial system.”
“Digital Kina has the potential to solve challenges in financial inclusion, security and accessibility, and we will work to ensure that it is beneficial for communities across the country,” Genia adds.
Moving forward, the parties say they plan to “expand the pilot to more users to refine the system and gather feedback”, with the next phase focused on enhancing the platform’s “speed, security and regulatory capabilities”.
To learn more about Asia’s rapid progress with CBDC development, read our in-depth analysis of the region’s embrace of this technology.
