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The Bank of France (Banque de France) has successfully conducted a test for the CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency).

This was announced by the French bank itself.

The experiment also involved the SEBA Bank and took place on 18 June. The test consisted of using the CBDC to simulate a settlement of listed securities and thus trigger delivery in TARGET2-Securities (T2S). To do so, the French central bank simulated the release of a digital currency on a public blockchain, taking care of the control and confidentiality of transactions, thanks to a smart contract created for this purpose.

In addition to SEBA Bank, Banque Internationale à Luxembourg and LuxCSD also participated.

The tests are not over yet: Banque de France says it will continue with other tests later this year. The results and experience generated will be used to help the European Union in the eventual development of a central bank digital currency.

Nathalie Aufauvre, General Director of Financial Stability and Operations explained:

“This experiment made it possible to demonstrate the possibilities of interaction between conventional and distributed infrastructures. It also paves the way for other alliances in order to benefit from the opportunities offered by financial assets in a blockchain environment”.

A CBDC in France

In reality, France cannot issue its own digital currency as its current currency is the euro. This means that the tests carried out by the Banque de France are more likely to verify the functionality of a possible digital euro.

However, it will be issued by the ECB. Even though its release seems far off at the moment, Europe seems to be making progress and moving ahead faster than the United States. In the US, the digital dollar is still only in the study phase.

The European Union, on the other hand, could launch its own digital wallet in 2022, which will be used to store not only money but also documents of its member citizens. However, Christine Lagarde, president of the ECB, does not seem to be in a hurry: she had suggested that the release of the digital euro could take another four years.

For the central banks, the use of CBDCs now seems to be an obligatory course of action: the risk is that stablecoins, currencies considered to be of a “private” nature, could take over too much.

 

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