Bank of England to Work with MIT on CBDC
Posted by Colin Lambert. Last updated: March 26, 2022
Just one week after the Bank of Canada signed a similar agreement, the Bank of England and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have agreed to collaborate on a 12-month research project on central bank digital currencies (CBDC).
The Old Lady says it will partner with MIT Media Lab’s Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) team to explore potential technical challenges, trade-offs, opportunities and risks involved in designing a CBDC system. The collaboration forms part of the Bank’s wider research and exploration into CBDC and will be focused on exploration and experimentation of potential technology approaches.
As is customary in these cases, the central bank stresses the work is focused on exploratory technology research and is not intended to develop an operational CBDC. No decision has been made on whether to introduce a CBDC in the UK, which would be a major national infrastructure project. Undertaking this type of technical research will help inform wider policy thinking around CBDC, the Bank of England says, adding it will issue a report at the end of the project.
The announcement follows one by the Bank of Canada, which will also work with MIT’s DCI for 12 months – it too stresses that no decision has been made on whether to introduce a digital Canadian dollar.