MasterCard announces the results of a successful packaged CBDC trial

MasterCard has completed an experiment that involves bundling central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on different blockchains, such as wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) and wrapped Ether (wETH).

As announced on October 12, the trial was conducted with the participation of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the country's digital finance cooperative research centre, CBCC, along with Kuskal and Mintable. In a live environment, Mastercard's solution enables a CBDC holder to purchase a non-fungible token (NFT) listed on Ethereum. The payment processor “locks” the required pilot CBDC on the RBA pilot CBDC platform and creates a corresponding amount of locked pilot CBDC tokens on Ethereum.

“As a condition for the test transaction, the buyer's and seller's Ethereum wallets, as well as the NFT marketplace smart contract, were ‘authorized' in the platform. The sealed pilot CBDC blocked all other transactions, even on public blockchains – successfully demonstrated the ability to implement platform controls.

The solution integrates payment technology with blockchain and leverages the MasterCard MultiToken Network, which was introduced in June 2023. “With MasterCard, we've identified a use case where digital currencies and NFTs can easily connect, eliminate fraud and theft, stop the loss of documents and records, and open up new opportunities for business,” commented Zach Burks. Founder of Mintable.

The RBA has previously stated that the Australian dollar CBCC enables complex payment arrangements and innovations that cannot be replaced by financial currencies. However, the central bank also pointed out that “more research” is needed to evaluate the benefits.

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