The Swiss central bank and Swiss exchange SDX have completed testing of a wholesale CBDC, which is ready for launch, governing board member Thomas Moser told CoinDesk. The European country has been public about its aversion to a retail CBDC. According to Moser, it remains a policy decision whether SNB decides to launch a wCBDC. However, the necessary testing is completed. Moser said:
I would say we would be ready to go live in January, and it just takes a policy decision and the question of whether we legally could do a wholesale CBDC. But technically we would be ready to go live with a wCBDC on SDX.
Project Helvetia
The Swiss central bank started working on a wCBDC concept with BIS and SDX two years ago. The project was known as Helvetia back then. Moreover, SNB has been working on Project Jura, a project for cross-border wCBDCs, with Banque de France this year.
Helvetia’s second phase has now been completed and the respective report will be released in January. This phase went a bit deeper. SDX and SNB integrated the wCBDC into five banks’ core systems. SDX has reported it was conducting system testing with Citibank, JPMorgan and Credit Suisse.
Moser added:
Unlike a lot of the research projects done by central banks, this is testing with infrastructure that will soon be going live. All the nitty-gritty and details are there. We did end-to-end connectivity, and checked how it would be on the balance sheet, how to book it.
Allowing for conditional transfer
The combination of distributed ledger technology and digital cash is being developed with R3′s permissioned Corda network. It allows for conditional transfers, where the transfer of one asset depends on a simultaneous cash transfer. This process is also known as “atomic settlement.”
Stablecoin pegged to the franc in the near future?
Stablecoins have become a critical element of the crypto economy. SDX has been working on a stablecoin pegged to the franc as part of its testing. However, SDX has become a regulated market infrastructure with an account at the central bank. The cash backing the token is held there. This is a more secure setup than Tether, for example, which hasn’t made its backing all that clear.
Thomas Moser seems to support stablecoins as a means of payment on blockchains. However, he pointed out that a national bank would tend to favor settlement in legal tender.
