The Bank of Japan (BoJ) has officially begun the first phase of a year-long feasibility study for its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), according to a report in Decrypt.
The first phase, being described by Japan as a “Proof of Concept (PoC)” study, will help the BoJ design a prototype of the full-fledged cryptocurrency “as a payment instrument such as issuance, distribution and redemption”.
According to Decrypt, the Bank of Japan plans to run the first phase for the better part of 2021, “then follow it up by more phases before the bank launches a CBDC”.
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On a similar footing, Japan’s main economic rival, China, will soon debut the digital Yuan, otherwise titled “Digital Currency, Electronic Payment (DCEP)”. Up till now, it has been reported that 6 Chinese government-owned banks have started receiving applications from citizens in Shanghai and Beijing for opening digital wallet accounts.
Besides China and Japan, the UK’s Bank of England and the European Central Bank are also exploring tentative proposals for designing Central Bank Digital Currencies.
