Quant explores benefits of CBDCs on Project Rosalind

Quant collaborated with the Bank for International Settlements and Bank of England for the project

Quant, a blockchain for finance provider, has announced its role as part of the vendor team for Project Rosalind.  

The project, led by the Bank for International Settlements and Bank of England, explored how application programming interfaces (APIs) could be used for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), finding that they could play a key role and deliver a range of benefits in terms of payment functionality and security. 

It also showed several examples where CBDCs can be beneficial and support a more digitised economy in the future.  

Amazon demonstrated a checkout experience whereby the customer could select and use a CBDC to pay for an item, similar to using a debit card or Apple Pay. 

The Bank of Canada, meanwhile, demonstrated a transaction between a parent and their child’s account. 

The project looked specifically at a public-private sector model, in which the public sector would provide core infrastructure and the private sector would produce applications for consumers. 

For the project, Quant provided the underlying infrastructure and blockchain platform, smart contracts and interoperability of central bank ledgers.  

Gilbert Verdian, founder and chief executive officer of Quant, believes money is now ready for the digital age.  

He said: “A CBDC will enable citizens and businesses to automate cumbersome payments and processes and implement logic into money.  

“For commercial banks and other institutions, the opportunity to apply this programmability to create innovative new products that differentiate themselves from challengers and competitors is almost endless.  

“We encourage every bank and financial institution to read the Project Rosalind report and start planning their smart money infrastructure strategy.” 

The project was directed by the BIS Innovation Hub London Centre. UST, a digital transformation solutions provider, built the frontend Rosalind API layer. 

Martin Hargreaves, product manager at Quant, commented: “It was a really positive project and the collaboration between the various participants worked well, we’ve now created real-world examples of how CBDCs could be integrated into our day-to-day lives.” 

Image: © Jian Fan via Canva

Learn more: CBDCs are coming, but what does this mean for consumers, banks and capital markets? Gilbert Verdian from Quant has some answers 

Josh Poyser Josh Poyser is an editor at FinTech Intel. He has written about fintech for several years and appeared at FinTech Connect 2023 on the 'Unlocking Success: The Art of Fintech PR' panel.