The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) have released a consultation paper for industry feedback as part of a new joint research initiative, Project Acacia.
The Project will explore how different forms of digital money and associated infrastructure could support the development of wholesale tokenised asset markets in Australia.
The consultation paper is seeking responses from industry in three core areas:
- Providing feedback on the technical and functional capabilities of digital money and settlement infrastructure to support tokenised asset markets.
- Participating in an experimental research phase for Project Acacia.
- Joining the Project’s Industry Advisory Group.
The Project will focus on how new forms of money, including wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC), deposit tokens and regulated stablecoins, could jointly enable the growth of tokenised asset markets.
It will support both the DFCRC’s key objective of promoting the tokenisation of real-world assets in Australia and the RBA’s strategic priority of shaping the future of money in Australia.
DFCRC Chief Scientist Professor Talis Putnins said: “The DFCRC’s focus is the tokenisation of real-world assets, which will represent the next significant evolution in Australia’s financial markets.
“Tokenisation uses blockchain and distributed ledger technology to enable the digital representation of assets such as stocks, bonds, funds, real estate and commodities.
“In Project Acacia, we will be working together with the RBA to better understand how new types of public and private money will coexist for safe and efficient settlement of transactions in tokenised asset markets.
“The economic opportunity for Australia is huge, with research suggesting economic gains in existing markets and cross border payments in the order of $12 billion per annum, not to mention the additional gains from the emergence of new asset markets.
“We are calling on the industry to engage actively on this consultation paper – we need your insights and your feedback to make this work. We also encourage you to submit potential use cases for the experimental phase and to nominate to join the Industry Advisory Group for the Project.”
Consultation closes on Wednesday 11 December 2024.
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