The first phase of the project Inthanon should be completed by the first quarter of 2019

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The Bank of Thailand (BoT) announced that it expects to complete the first stage of the test issued by the Central Bank of digital currency (CBDC) by March 2019. This writes CoinDesk.

Thai Central Bank announced agreements with eight financial institutions, including Bangkok Bank Public, Krung Thai, Siam Commercial Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC to create the CBDC on the basis of the distributed registry Corda, developed oriented to corporate clients, the blockchain-a consortium of R3.

The ultimate goal of the project is the creation of a digital currency, used to make interbank payments, “the infrastructure efficiency of financial markets of Thailand.”

R3 participates in the project called Inthanon, the rights of the technology partner.

“The first phase of the project Inthanon should be completed by the first quarter of 2019, after which the BoT will publish a report on its results in an appropriate order,” the Bank said. – “Based on the results of the first phase of the project participants are planning to continue the development of the prototype and to expand its functionality to include the ability of money transfers by third parties and cross-border money transfer”.

The head of the Bank outlined the initial concept of the project during his speech in June, saying then about the Ministry’s intention to explore the possibilities of the blockchain for the implementation of interbank transactions, and allowing the possibility of using new platforms on larger scale after the completion of the first stage.

With the launch of the project Inthanon BoT joins a growing list of Central banks, which already includes Hong Kong Monetary authority and the Bank of Canada is interested in the capabilities of a distributed registry in the implementation of cross-border transfers.

BoT said that currently is developing another blockchain project aims to improve the effectiveness of the sale of state bonds.