What Project Aurum A Prototype for Two-tier Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) requires
Project Aurum, a joint project by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), details the creation of a full-stack central bank digital currency (CBDC) system prototype. The system is built on the premise that a digital currency issued by a central bank must be as robust and trustworthy as gold. It features a two-tier technology stack comprising a wholesale interbank system, where wholesale CBDC (wCBDC) is issued to banks, and a retail e-wallet system, where retail CBDC (rCBDC) circulates among users. The project's goal was to bring to life two different types of retail tokens: intermediated CBDC (referred to as CBDC-tokens) and CBDC-backed stablecoins. The system's design is guided by principles of safety, flexibility, and privacy. A key architectural feature is the separation of the wholesale and retail systems, which ensures the central bank does not access retail users' personal data, preserving privacy. The prototype utilizes an unspent transaction output (UTXO) model and a validator mechanism to prevent risks like over-issuance and double-spending. The Aurum system, along with its source code and technical manuals, is made accessible to all BIS central bank members to serve as a public good and further the global study of rCBDC architectures.
Pillar: Crypto & Sovereign Finance · Authority: Bank for International Settlements (BIS) · Version: 1.0.0 · Last updated:
Primary source: https://www.bis.org/publ/othp57.pdf
SHA-256 integrity: 20b0db612795c1c5efb733dd1bb5bfbeb2a7898dc74b1b8c9346af44a2a3af50
Primary Citations — 7 traced to source
- Section 1.2: Aurum, being the BIS Innovation Hub's first rCBDC project, decided to focus on the two architectures shown in figure 1: (a) intermediated CBDC, also referred to herein as CBDC-tokens, and (b) CBDC-backed stablecoins, or in short stablecoins.
- Section 2.1: The Aurum system is designed such that the wholesale interbank system can detect and prevent banks from: 1. Over-issuance: the system prevents banks from issuing more rCBDC than the wCBDC asset that bank owns 2. Double-issuance: the system prevents banks from using the same wCBDC asset to issue rCBDC repeatedly 3. Double-redemption: the system prevents banks from using the same rCBDC to exchange for wCBDC repeatedly.
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