The BOE or the Bank of England is quite close to launching its central bank digital currency, which has been referred to as Britcoin. The launch could take place just after the conclusion of a trial study called Project Rosalind.
The BoE and the Bank for International Settlements launched this joint experiment in July of 2022 to explore how the various prototypes of an application programming interface could seemingly be implemented in retail CBDC transactions. A report from the 16th of June summed up phase two of Project Rosalind, wherein they found a CBDC which could make multiple payments between individuals a lot cheaper, as well as more efficient while allowing the firms to create new financial products that would work to reduce the fraudulent financial activity.
Britcoin Could Be Launched After Conducting Detailed Studies
The Britcoin study, along with checking out how a CBDC would function on smartphones, online stores, and retail vendors, also went on to explore the concept of programmability, which is a term that refers to the customization of digital money that would behave in specific ways when the conditions are met. The programmability of CBDC has already been met with a certain skepticism, as some certain critics have claimed that a CBDC could be programmed to work against those who are using it. On the whole, the study went on to conclude that a well-designed API layer could enable a central bank to interact entirely with the private sector to safely provide retail CBDC payments.
Interestingly, despite the positive findings that have been yielded through Project Rosalind, the Deputy Governor of BoE, Jon Cunliffe has mentioned that a final decision on whether the country would be launching Britcoin is still a few years from now.
