• The BIS Innovation Hub has revealed the results of Project Rosalind, a collaboration between the Bank of England and the BIS Innovation Hub.

• Quant’s digital currency surged 20% following its partnership announcement with the Bank of England for Project Rosalind.

The BIS Innovation Hub has announced the outcomes of Project Rosalind, a collaborative effort between the Bank of England and the BIS Innovation Hub. This initiative delved into central bank digital currency (CBDC) and examined the potential of application programming interfaces (APIs) for facilitating integration between payment providers and the central bank’s ledger. 

The APIs were designed to interact with two distinct blockchain-based ledgers, although the primary emphasis of the experiments was on the APIs rather than the core system. The trials encompassed a diverse range of 18 use cases involving the digital pound, exploring scenarios such as simple merchant payments and developing prototype parent and child wallets.  Additionally, the project ventured into decentralized identity and verifiable credentials, aiming to enhance privacy and security. 

Francesca Hopwood Road, Head of the BIS Innovation Hub London Centre, stated that:

Active collaboration with the public and private sectors to identify and explore these use cases has been at the heart of this, and we believe that Rosalind can make a significant contribution to how organizations across the globe are thinking about and engaging with the design of retail CBDC systems.

Privacy is a prominent concern associated with CBDCs, and during the trials, the APIs transmitted pseudonymous data to the central bank while preserving personal information within the payment provider’s domain.

In relation to the APIs, a noteworthy discovery was that a set of straightforward modular APIs facilitated substantial standardization and flexibility for complex use cases. Additionally, they experimented with allowing service providers to incorporate custom features. However, there is a concern that this flexibility may lead to inconsistencies in the user experience.

The experimentation involved two distinct blockchains: Hyperledger Besu for an account-based digital pound and Hyperledger Fabric for a token-based system. Quant’s Overledger technology facilitated the simulation of multiple central bank ledgers and allowed for the testing of the APIs with these two distributed ledgers. UST served as the technology consultant during the process.

In the meantime, the Bank of England has previously expressed that a digital pound will not have programmability at its core layer. The Bank is conducting a consultation on CBDCs, which will run until the end of this month. While the Bank has not made a final decision on implementing a digital pound, Deputy Governor Sir Jon Cunliffe has expressed a probability of over 50% for its potential adoption.

Quant Surges 20% Following Collaboration With Bank of England and BIS for CBDC Project

On June 15, the digital currency of Quant, a blockchain platform facilitating the integration of digital currencies into financial institutions, experienced a significant 20% surge after announcing its partnership with the Bank of England for Project Rosalind. After experiencing losses earlier in the week, the native currency of Quant made a notable turnaround, reclaiming its value and reversing the negative trend.

In addition to designing, Quant was crucial in supplying the infrastructure and blockchain platform required to achieve interoperability among central bank ledgers.