Bank of Korea Announces CBDC Pilot Program for 100,000 Citizens

One hundred thousand Korean citizens will be invited to use deposit tokens to purchase products as part of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot program, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

Beginning “around September to October” of 2024, the testing will continue for three months.

As per a report by the Korea Times dated November 23, users will be limited to utilizing the CBDC exclusively for payment purposes, with no provision for storing, exchanging, or transmitting it to other users.

The objective of the pilot phase is to assess the efficacy and viability of currency distribution and issuance.

To test the viability of delivery versus payment transactions, the BOK will also collaborate with the Korea Exchange to integrate its new digital currency into a simulation system for carbon emissions trading.

The newspaper cited a BOK statement, which stated: The BOK statements coincided with the visit to Seoul of Agustin Carstens, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

The Korean CBDC initiative has been referred to publicly by Carstens as the “digital win.”

In October, the Bank of Korea declared the commencement of the CBDC pilot program. Private and public institutions will participate in the pilot, which will evaluate wholesale and retail CBDCs; the BIS will provide expert technical support.

The BIS is at the vanguard of CBDC adoption on a global scale.

It is developing a proof-of-concept for a transactions tracker with the European Central Bank and aiding in the development of a joint platform with the central monetary authorities of China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates, in addition to assisting the Swiss National Bank in the development of a wholesale CBDC.