Norway has finally published the open source code for the nation’s Central Bank’s Digital Currency (CBDC). On 8th September, the Norway bank “Norges” informed the public about the source code being available, this was a major step in the Digital World by Norway.
CBDCs are a type of electronic fiat money backed by the central bank. Although they are not required to be, CBDCs can be built on blockchain networks. And Norway has decided to build their CBDC on the Ethereum blockchain.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Currently, only the two countries Nigeria and The Bahamas are known to be the one who has successfully launched the CBDC program. They also mentioned that there are around 97 countries. Or we can say more than half of the global central banks are interested in developing their own CBDC including India.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced intentions to roll out the CBDC throughout the course of this budget year, but in phases. The CBDC will first be available to wholesale enterprises and is created in a way that prevents anonymity. In a controlled environment, the nation has started the technological development and early testing of CBDC, according to a recent report by the data analytics company Visual Capitalist.
Everything about Norway’s Central Bank’s Digital Currency
The CBDC of Norway is called Sandbox and is available on GitHub. Nahmii which has collaborated with the Norway government to work on Central Bank’s Digital Currency made a blog post about this and provided information on the whole project. In the blog, Nahmii mentioned that the Sandbox provides a user interface for engaging with the test network, making it possible to perform operations including minting, burning, and transferring ERC-20 tokens.
Additionally, the sandbox has a unique interface and network monitoring programs like BlockScout and Grafana. The front end of the sandbox also displays a filterable overview of the network transactions, according to Nahmii.
Users with the proper credentials are the only ones who can access the present version of the Norges Bank sandbox network, which is protected by basic authentication. As a result, transactions on the test network are private.
The blog further mentioned that this version of the code was not intended to support MetaMask and is only suited for Keystore files.
Norges Bank was planning to work on CBDC in April last year which was revealed through the blog post. The central bank also mentioned Ethereum in a blog post about the CBDC in May. According to the Norges Bank, the Ethereum cryptocurrency system is anticipated to offer a “fundamental infrastructure” for the creation, transfer, and destruction of digital central bank money, or DSP. The bank stated that “the prototype would be used to test a number of the key features for DSP.”
The main objective of Norges Bank’s inquiry is to determine whether DSP is required to make the Norwegian kroner payment service safe, effective, and appealing to the Norwegian people.
What’s more, coming in the Development in Sandbox?
More complicated and intriguing use cases, like batch payments, security tokens, and bridges, will be incorporated into future sandbox development. This requires both more front-end development and work on customized smart contracts.
By mid-September, Nahmii is planning to release the second phase of the project to Norges Bank, and shortly after that, the source code available to the general public.
Central Bank’s Digital Currency sandbox code can be interacted with in two different ways. First, Lasse Meholm at Norges Bank can provide access to the complete CBDC environment (including the capability to view transaction information) upon request. Second, using code and the default Docker images, anyone can launch a standalone instance of the sandbox.
For more cryptocurrency-related content checkout the Suncrypto Academy.
Disclaimer:
Crypto products and NFTs are unregulated and can be highly risky. There may be no regulatory recourse for any loss from such transactions. All content provided is for informational purposes only, and shall not be relied upon as financial/investment advice. Opinions shared, if any, are only shared for information and education purposes. Although the best efforts have been made to ensure all information is accurate and up to date, occasionally unintended errors or misprints may occur. We recommend you to please do your own research or consult an expert before making any investment decision. You may write to us at [email protected].
