Bank of Canada partners with MIT on CBDC research

What

The Bank of Canada has partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to work on a 12-month research project focused on the design of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)

Why 

The project is part of the bank’s broader development agenda on digital currencies, fintech and how CBDCs could work in a Canadian context

What next

The decision of whether to introduce a CBDC in Canada will be taken once the research project is complete

The Story

The Bank of Canada has announced that it has partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to work on a 12-month research project focused on the design of a CBDC.

The project is part of the bank’s broader development agenda on digital currencies, fintech and how CBDCs could work in a Canadian context.

Codenamed ‘Project Hamilton’, it was designed to test a ‘hypothetical general-purpose CBDC’ using two potential models including distributed ledger technology (DLT) and processing transactions in parallel on multiple computers, rather than relying on a single ordering server to prevent double-spending.

While no concrete decision has been made on whether to introduce a CBDC in Canada, the bank confirmed further updates will be shared once the research project is complete. 

To learn more about CBDCs visit our learning resource here.