The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has announced that its multi-central bank CBDC platform, Project mBridge, has reached the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) stage. This milestone signifies a major advancement in the project, which is designed to explore a shared multi-CBDC platform among participating central and commercial banks. Built on distributed ledger technology (DLT), Project mBridge aims to enable instant cross-border payments and settlements.
Launched in 2021, Project mBridge is a collaborative effort involving the Bank of Thailand, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, the Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Recently, the Saudi Central Bank joined as a full participant, bringing the total to more than 26 observing members.
Central banks supporting the project believe that multi-CBDC arrangements, which connect different jurisdictions within a single technical infrastructure, have the potential to significantly improve the current correspondent banking system. This new approach could make cross-border payments immediate, affordable, and universally accessible, ensuring final settlement.
The mBridge Ledger, a newly developed blockchain, supports real-time, peer-to-peer cross-border payments and foreign exchange transactions. In 2022, a successful pilot involving real-value transactions was conducted. Following this, the mBridge team has been working towards evolving the prototype platform into an MVP, a stage now officially reached.
To achieve this MVP milestone, the four founding central banks and monetary authorities each deployed a validating node. Concurrently, commercial banks conducted more real-value transactions to prepare for the MVP release. Additionally, a bespoke governance and legal framework, including a tailored rulebook, was established to match the platform’s decentralized nature.
The MVP platform is now capable of handling real-value transactions and is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, enabling it to serve as a testbed for additional technology solutions, new use cases, and interoperability with other platforms.
As Project mBridge enters the MVP stage, it invites private sector firms to propose innovative solutions and use cases that could further develop the platform and showcase its full potential. Interested firms can apply to participate via a participation form on the BIS website.
