Cost processor Visa has accomplished the Hong Kong Financial Authority’s central financial institution digital foreign money (CBDC) pilot program with HSBC and Dangle Seng Financial institution. 

In keeping with the Nov. 1 announcement, the e-HKD program includes tokenization of deposits, the place the cash deposited with a financial institution is minted on the agency’s personal blockchain ledger with the backing of its steadiness sheet. As a part of its key findings, Visa wrote: 

“The time to last settlement for an interbank switch, as confirmed by our pilot’s testing between the banks, was close to real-time. Tokenized deposits had been burned on the sending financial institution’s ledger, minted on the receiving financial institution’s ledger, and concurrently settled interbank by way of the simulated wholesale CBDC layer.”

As well as, Visa stated in the course of the pilot that its platform was in a position to perform 24/7, besting conventional cost methods that will not function after hours or on weekends.

“Our testing was accomplished utilizing blockchain networks that had been accessible globally and supported by groups in different time zones,” the agency wrote. In the meantime, the tokenized deposits had been transacted by encryption, permitting them to be seen on blockchain explorers however not revealing the identification of contributors, balances, or transaction quantities to non-bank customers.

For the subsequent steps, the cost processor says it’s exploring tokenized asset markets and programmable finance. “For instance, on this pilot’s ‘Property Funds’ use case, the cost from a purchaser transferring the remaining steadiness tokens to the property developer could also be automated upon reaching the completion date of the contract, minimizing lag time within the closure of the method,” Visa wrote. The e-HKD pilot program will enter Section 2 following the profitable outcomes. 

Associated: Visa to take a position $100M in generative AI