Digital Pound One Step Closer, Bloomberg Says

Project Rosalind, a joint experiment initiative organized by the Bank of England and the Bank for International Settlements, reports its first phase has ended. It looks like the results of testing might pave the way for a full-scale central bank digital currency (CBDC) pegged to the Great Britain Pound.

United Kingdom CBDC Britcoin accomplishes major R&D milestone

The partners behind Project Rosalind, a massive CBDC experiment, has achieved notable progress in phase one. As reported by Bloomberg Crypto, it “adds to the BOE’s case for launching its own CBDC.” GBP-pegged stablecoin might be dubbed Britcoin, the outlet reports.

The Bank of England is a step closer to launching its own digital currency https://t.co/JD1CQYeyJJ

— Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) June 16, 2023

The new report confirmed that the government-backed stablecoin is able to facilitate payments between individuals quicker and easier, and help organizations to launch new financial products and reduce fraud.

Also, the authors of the report stressed that CBDCs unlock previously unseen opportunities for various groups of market participants, including banks, e-commerce organizations and public services:

It could allow for money “programmability” — for example, meaning that a payment to an online vendor would automatically settle when a buyer had verified that the products had been received satisfactorily.

However, the project is yet to find the backing of the U.K. Treasury. Also, it is still unclear whether BoE will be interested in the next phases of Britcoin research.

Largest U.K. businesses racing towards crypto experiments

The prototypes of the Digital GBP have been in development since at least 2020. In 2021, U.S.-based fintech heavyweight Ripple announced that it had joined the Digital Pound Foundation.

One of the most advanced prototypes of GBP-backed CBDC for retail use is powered by Quant platform. Its developments are leveraged by Barclays for cash-on-delivery payments and for Amazon U.K. experiments with checkout paying with CBDC.

As covered by U.Today previously, Ripple is coordinating stablecoin efforts for many countries, including Great Britain, Hong Kong, Montenegro and so on.

Another major corporate partner of British CBDC development is B2C fintech giant Revolut.