Bank of England, BIS complete distributed ledger settlements pilot – Crypto News – Crypto News
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Bank of England, BIS complete distributed ledger settlements pilot Bank of England, BIS complete distributed ledger settlements pilot

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Bank of England, BIS complete distributed ledger settlements pilot – Crypto News

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The Bank of England and Bank for International Settlements (BIS) have completed a joint pilot testing a distributed ledger technology-based settlements system between institutions.

The UK central bank plans to take lessons from the project and apply them to its real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system.

BIS has also published a 44-page report onproject. Titled Project Meridian, it was carried out with the Bank of England at the BIS innovation hub in London.

The document says the banks were able to buy houses in England and Wales via a synchronization network that utilizes distributed ledger technology (DLT).

According to the report, the method of sending messages between the synchronization network and RTGS system could be extended to other asset classes “relatively easily”.

The report is also clear that this settlement system could benefit central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), stating that:

“Synchronization can provide a central catalyst for innovation in wholesale payments and support the emergence of new payments infrastructures that settle using bank money.”

Project Meridian does outline a number of potential issues in using such a system, however. The document specifies the difficulties network operators would face in implementing identity verification.

It also highlights that synchronization services would only be available during RTGS service hours.

There is also a host of legal issues, such as where the final point of irrevocability of the settlement would be drawn and how to digitally represent asset ownership.

In March this year, the BIS announced it had completed Project Icebreaker, another pilot looking at international retail and remittance use cases for CBDCs.

The project saw participation from the central banks of Norway, Sweden, and Israel.

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Tags: Bank of England, cbdc, central bank

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