Mastercard has completed a trial of wrapping central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on different blockchains, similar to wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) and wrapped Ether (wETH).
According to the October 12 announcement, the pilot was conducted with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the country’s Digital Finance Cooperative Research Center CBDC, along with participation from Cuscal and Mintable. In a live environment, Mastercard said the solution enabled a CBDC owner to purchase a non-fungible token (NFT) listed on Ethereum. “The process “locked” the required quantity of a pilot CBDC on the RBA’s pilot CBDC platform and minted an equivalent number of wrapped pilot CBDC tokens on Ethereum,” the payment processor wrote.
“A prerequisite for the test transaction was that both the buyer’s and seller’s Ethereum wallets, as well as the NFT marketplace smart contract, were ‘allow-listed’ on the platform. While all other transfers from the wrapped pilot CBDC were blocked, it successfully demonstrated the platform’s ability to implement controls – even on public blockchains.”
The solution uses Mastercard’s Multi Token Network, introduced in June 2023, and integrates payment technology with blockchains. “Together with Mastercard, we have identified a use case where digital currencies and NFTs can be easily linked, potentially eradicating fraud and theft, ending documentation and data loss, and unleashing new possibilities for commerce,” said Zack Burcks, CEO and founder of Mintable.
The RBA previously stated that an Australian dollar CBDC would potentially enable complex payment arrangements and innovation in the financial sector that fiat money cannot replace. However, the central bank also noted that “more research” is needed to evaluate the benefits.
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