The South African Central Bank has launched a program that will test JPMorgan's Quorum blockchain potential in interbank settlement and settlement.

According to an official statement dated February 13, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) revealed that it has put in place a Fintech program that will prioritize, among other things, the Khokha project to explore a proof of concept (PoC) using technology.

The SARB also stated in the announcement that it will partner with ConsenSys, the Etherum technology development startup, in the development of PoC. The project will involve the replication of the wholesale payment process on Quorum, the block of business blocks co-developed by JPMorgan and EthLab, an ethereum start-up.

The statutes of the SARB:

"The purpose of this project is to gain a practical understanding of DLTs through the development of a proof of concept (PoC) in collaboration with the banking sector the objective of the PoC is to replicate the interbank settlement and settlement on a DLT that will allow SARB and the industry to jointly evaluate the potential benefits and risks of DLT. "

The initiative is the latest effort by South African financial institutions to explore the application of blockchain technology. As reported last February, several major banks in South Africa, including SARB, have already paved a path towards implementing blockchain on a large scale.

That said, the SARB pointed out that the new effort does not mean that it is already taking the radical decision to integrate the DLT into the national payment infrastructure. Rather, PoC is an experiment to understand the impact of using DLT to process token assets.

Elsewhere in the announcement, the central bank said it would also review a regulatory framework around cryptocurrencies that will focus primarily on anti-money laundering issues, tax compliance , settlement risks and exchange controls.

South Africa image via Shutterstock

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