- The purpose of the partnership is to explore blockchain
- The talks with the Central Bank have been underway for over a year
- And the project itself is due to end in 2023
Cryptocurrency firm Ripple has announced a partnership with the central bank of Colombia to explore blockchain technology. The government’s Banco de la República will work with the Ministry of Information and Communications to implement pilot programs using Ripple’s CBDC Platform. Their goal is to improve the country’s high-value payment system.
Director of CBDC Business Development at Ripple, Joe Vollono, said that talks with the Central Bank of Colombia have been ongoing for more than a year, and the pilot is being conducted with the Spanish company Peersyst Technolog.
“When we mention high value payment system, we usually mean large wholesale payments, RTGS systems and related financial transactions and infrastructure that can benefit from using distributed ledger technology. That’s why our research is focused on this particular aspect,” Vollono said.
According to Ripple, in addition to increasing speed, these efforts have the potential to reduce overall costs. The project will continue until the end of 2023, and will involve testing in a controlled environment with minimal resources.
Colombia is not the first country that Ripple has partnered with. Previously, the company has already communicated with the authorities of Hong Kong, Montenegro, Bhutan and Palau.