The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has released the results of the second phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) proof-of-concept (POC) experiment and confirmed that its CBDC pilot project launched on schedule in April. The second phase POC ran for a year, from April 2022 to March 2023, and considered functions to complement the basic ledger functions tested in the first yearlong experiment.
According to the BOJ report, the second phase tested technology to implement upper limits on CBDC holdings, which it described as “safeguards ensuring the stability of the financial system” in case of a sudden shift from bank accounts to the CBDC. That included cases where a single user had multiple accounts with multiple intermediaries. User convenience in initiating and scheduling payments was also examined.