Brad Jones News

Shalini is a crypto reporter who provides in-depth reports on daily developments and regulatory shifts in the cryptocurrency sector.

A number of crypto advocates have emphasized the significance of Bitcoin (BTC) mining as a “critical tool” for clean energy usage and grid balancing. 

Bitcoin mining is a “critical tool” for clean energy and balancing the grid, according to a new working paper penned by Bitcoin advocates and the former president of ERCOT, the operator of Texas’ electrical grid. 

Crypto usually dominates headlines as a speculative trading asset. Fortunes are won and lost in these oft-unregulated and volatile markets.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is open to using a central bank digital currency (CBDC) as the future of money, where state-issued digital money would represent a tokenized form of central bank reserves.

The Reserve Bank of Australia says creating real-world financial assets in a “tokenised” form could unlock billions of dollars in annual savings for banks and other financial institutions by streamlining settlement processes and automating registries.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), the country’s de-facto central bank, released the findings of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot project, which has the potential “to support increased efficiency and resilience in some areas of the payments system.”

Operating in a ring-fenced environment and involving a digital currency that is a real claim on the Reserve Bank, 14 pilot projects with a range of industry participants investigated potential CBDC use cases. The various use cases explored in the project highlighted a range of areas where tokenised money could add value, reports the RBA, including by facilitating programmable payments, atomic settlement in tokenised asset markets and offline payments. The project also highlighted opportunities for CBDC to support the development of new forms of privately-issued digital money, including tokenised bank deposits or CBDC-backed stablecoins. "In this sense, a CBDC could be viewed as an enabling complement to, rather than substitute for, private sector innovation," notes the central bank. However, the project highlighted the need for further analysis of the legal underpinnings for a CBDC, as well as consideration of the regulatory frameworks that could apply to any new business models that may arise.

The Reserve Bank of Australia says a central bank digital currency could increase “efficiency and resilience in some areas of the payments system”, but warns more research is required to deal with legal, regulatory, technical and operational issues to ensure any eAUD operates safely.

The projects will operate in a ring-fenced environment and involve a digital currency that is a real claim on the Reserve Bank. First announced in August, the RBA says the project received a "large number" of use case submissions from a range of industry participants. Selected pilot projects involve offline payments with ANZ, nature-based asset trading in a combined proposal from ANZ and Commonwealth Bank, interoperable CBDC for Web3 Commerce with Mastercard and Cuscal, and a corporate bond settlement use case submitted by the Australian Bond Exchange, among others. Of Australia's Big Four banks, ANZ is involved in four projects, while Commonwealth Bank takes two of the spots. Westpac and NAB are notable by their absence.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has announced several projects that will develop use cases for the eAUD, the central bank digital currency (CBDC) of Australia, during its testing phase.

Australia's central bank is set to launch a "live pilot" of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) "in the coming months," according to a joint statement from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and Digital Finance CRC (DFCRC), an Australian financial research institute.

A Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot program in Australia has received more than 140 use case proposals from the finance industry, but the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) warns that it could displace the Australian dollar and result in people avoiding commercial banks entirely.