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Project mBridge e-currency project involving Hong Kong, mainland China hits landmark

  • Saudi Central Bank joins central bank digital currency project as it announces minimum viable product, opening door for further cooperation

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An attendee of Hong Kong Fintech Week checks out an exhibit showing digital currency on November 1, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg
Aileen Chuang

A multi-country central bank digital currency (CBDC) project involving mainland China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates has made a breakthrough by launching its minimum viable product (MVP) platform, which will serve as a proving ground for more use cases in cross-border transactions.

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As Project mBridge enters the MVP stage, the participation of both the public and private sectors will further expand. The Saudi Central Bank has joined as a full participant in the project, which has more than 26 observing members, according to announcements on Wednesday.

Since the project began in 2021, the four founding monetary authorities and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub have worked to utilise digital currencies built on distributed ledger technology (DLT) to enable instant cross-border payments and settlement.

The MVP platform, based on a new blockchain called mBridge ledger, will serve as a “test bed for add-on technology solutions, new use cases and interoperability with other platforms”, the BIS and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said in separate press releases on Wednesday.

The new platform is compatible with the Ethereum blockchain, one of the largest distributed ledgers in the world. Ethereum hosts ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation after bitcoin, and is known for creating programmable smart contracts that allow for various product types.
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“We cordially invite other central bank peers to join us on this mBridge journey, whether as users to experience the benefits of the platform first-hand, or as co-developers to enhance cross-border payments together,” said Eddie Yue Wai-man, CEO of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).

Private sector firms are also invited to propose solutions and use cases to further develop the platform.

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