Bank of Thailand Will Soon Launch Their Own Cryptocurrency Based on R3 Technology

BTC Wires: Thailand has been incredibly crypto friendly as compared to many of its other Asian neighbors (read: India). The latest information coming in from the country only serves to establish this fact. The country’s largest bank, which also happens to be its central bank, The Bank of Thailand (BoT) has endeavoured to launch a cryptocurrency pilot program.

A press release came out on August 21, where BoT explicitly declared that it had made significant contacts in the Thai financial sector by collaborating with eight financial institutions. The pilot project that BoT is working towards is called Project Inthanon, which will give rise to CBDC, which stands for a central bank digital currency. The collaborations are efforts that will help BoT is completing this project. Initial announcements indicated that this currency will run on Corda, which is R3’s very own distributed ledger technology.

If BoT can actually pull this off, then it will change the face of Thailand’s financial infrastructure. A digital currency that is endorsed by the country’s national bank is a huge step towards declaring one’s stance when it comes to cryptocurrency. Similar projects have been successfully undertaken by Bank of Canada, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

For now, March 2019 has been set as the deadline for the formulation of the design, development, and a proof-of-concept prototype testing for Project Inthanon. CBDC can then be used for domestic transactions via this prototype. Liquidity saving mechanisms and risk management strategies are key areas that will be kept in mind during the development period. Phase one should be completed before the end of March 2019. Upon completion, the BoT plans to publish a detailed summary of the project.