South Korea’s Central Bank Launches Central Bank Digital Currency Pilot Program in Case of Future Necessity

South Korea’s central bank recently announced that it has launched a pilot program assessing the issuance of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Bank of Korea has stated that there are no immediate plans to launch a CBDC, however, the pilot program will allow the central bank to be prepared in the future if the changing market conditions require its issuance.

This pilot program comes at a time where China’s central bank digital currency has said to be ready to roll out. Six central banks around the world have come together to create a working group to share experiences on use cases on central bank digital currency. With significant expertise in exploring digital currencies, these six central banks are the Bank of Canada, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, European Central bank, Sveriges Riksbank in Sweden, and the Swiss National Bank, along with the Bank of International Settlements.

The pilot program began in March 2020 and is set to run for 22 months, until December 2021. Theoretical research was conducted a month prior to the launch of the program, and the initial phase will allow the central bank to define the requirements and design of the CBDC, and this phase will take until July 2020. 

According to the announcement, the central bank emphasized that the bank will not be pushing out a CBDC any time soon, but the bank wishes to be prepared in case there will be a need for it in the future. 

South Korea’s largest bank files trademark application for crypto custody service

The largest bank in South Korea, KB Kookmin Bank has revealed its filing of a trademark application for KB Digital Asset Custody (KBDAC), its crypto custody service.

The crypto custody service will be made available for assets including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). The trademark application was filed with the Korean Intellectual Property Office, as reported by a local news outlet.

The application stated that the bank could potentially launch the service shortly, and also means that the entity has already begun the branding of products and the development has almost been finalized. 

KB announced its partnership with Atomrigs Lab in June 2019, to develop a crypto custody service leveraging a product that secures crypto utilizing multi-party computation (MPC) technology which Atomrigs Lab specializes in. MPC technology generates random key parts rather than a single private key. These key parts can be stored separately to protect the assets from the vulnerability of being stolen.

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