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The BIS Innovation Hub's Swiss Centre launched Project Tourbillon to explore how to reconcile central bank digital currency (CBDC) design trade-offs between cyber resiliency, scalability and privacy. For example, higher resiliency against cyber-attacks requires additional cryptography, which can slow down payment processing. Privacy must be weighed against the need to counter money laundering, terrorism financing and other illicit payments. Project Tourbillon aims to reconcile these trade-offs by combining proven technologies such as blind signatures and mix networks with the latest research on cryptography and CBDC design suggested by David Chaum and Thomas Moser in a 2021 Swiss National Bank working paper. The conclusions of this project will be relevant for both wholesale and retail CBDC systems. The goal is to finish the prototype by mid-2023.

In testimony before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard said that no decision has been made about whether the Fed will issue central bank digital currency (CBDC). However, she said that it is important to undertake the necessary work to inform any such decision and to be ready to move forward should the need arise. For example, a digital dollar could help ensure financial system stability if crypto-assets and CBDCs issued by other countries become increasingly popular.

Vow is a free floating, ERC777 compliant token issued on the Ethereum blockchain. It can be traded peer-to-peer or on supporting crypto exchanges. The initial supply of Vow is 1,142,857,142 and these are issued by Vow Limited. The Vow Token is most accurately described as an enabler for minting a second type of token called vcurrencies. The purpose of Vow is to provide nodes on the network (e.g. businesses) the ability to issue fixed value tokenized currencies called vcurrencies.

Bank for International Settlements (BIS) General Manager Agustín Carstens called for  the development of a  "unified ledger" that would allow different parts of the digital financial ecosystem to work together seamlessly. More specifically, such a ledger could bundled together central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and tokenized deposits, linked with smart contracts, to create a "money Lego" ecosystem. And Mr. Carstens claimed that all of a unified ledger's potential benefits  could be achieved on permissioned platforms with various degrees of centralization.

The Digital Euro Association (DEA) published a paper on the the potential of stablecoins in the European internet-of-things (IoT) and machine-to-machine (M2M) economies. The paper examines the benefits and drawbacks of M2M payments, provides industry use cases that highlight the potential benefits of stablecoin-enabled IoT and M2M payments, and discusses the need for further guidance from regulators to spur M2M payment growth.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) is commencing CBDC proof-of-concept design work, based on public feedback received during a recent consultation. The work will be a multi-stage and multi-year effort, and no specific design decisions have yet been made. The high-level design principles include providing a platform for economic and financial innovation, including competition in the payments and settlement sector, cross-border transfers, and financial inclusion and capability building tools. Also, the RBNZ believes that a CBDC can be designed so that privacy can exist alongside design features that make it hard to be used for nefarious or illegal purposes.

"A bill introduced in Congress on Monday seeks to re-create the virtues of cash, privacy and all, in digital form. The ECASH Act would direct the US government to experiment with issuing digital dollars that are stored on hardware, not in bank accounts, and can be used without an internet connection. The idea of new, surveillance-proof currency will surely face skepticism within government. But with paper money on a slow path to extinction, the case for a real digital alternative will only grow stronger."

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) plans to continue with the wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) securities settlement experimentation (Project Helvetia) that was concluded in January 2022. That had tested the issuance and settlement of tokenized securities with wholesale CBDC on the SIX Digital Exchange (SDX). In the next phase, the SNB will issue wholesale CBDC on SDX and test selected transactions with market participants. They will also test the use of "synthetic" wholesale CBDC (privately-issued stablecoins backed by SNB deposits) in a similar context. The SNB will also experiment with the processing of tokenized securities in which the payment leg is synchronized via a link to the Swiss Interbank Clearing (SIC) real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system, which also tested in the first phase of Project Helvetia. Such synchronization turned out to be technically possible but clunky compared to integrated processing, since the DLT functionalities had been restricted. As part of the new project, it will be investigated whether these disadvantages can be minimized by making adjustments to the SIC system or to the link itself.

The World Bank published a report that explores the implications of fintech and the digital transformation of financial services for market outcomes, on the one hand, and regulation and supervision, on the other hand-and how these interact. The report, which provides a high-level perspective for senior policy makers, is accompanied by notes that focus on salient issues for a more technical audience. As the financial sector continues to transform itself, policy trade-offs will evolve, and regulators will need to ensure that market outcomes remain aligned with core policy objectives. Several policy implications emerge. 1. Manage risks, while fostering beneficial innovation and competition. 2. Broaden monitoring horizons and reassess regulatory perimeters. 3. Review regulatory, supervisory, and oversight frameworks. 4. Be mindful of evolving policy trade-offs as fintech adoption deepens. 5. Monitor market structure and conduct to maintain competition. 6. Modernize and open financial infrastructures. 7. Ensure public money remains fit for the digital world. 8. Pursue strong cross-border coordination and sharing of information and best practices.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published its vision for a "Finternet" of multiple financial ecosystems interconnected with each other, much like the internet. The envisioned system leverages tokenization and unified ledgers, underpinned by a robust economic and regulatory framework, to dramatically expand the range and quality of financial services. The paper provides a blueprint for how key technical characteristics like interoperability, verifiability, programmability, immutability, finality, evolvability, modularity, scalability, security and privacy can be incorporated, and how varied governance norms can be embedded.

The Bank of Israel (BOI) is inviting anyone (from Israel or abroad) interested in studying or experimenting with the use of a digital shekel to submit a request to join the Digital Shekel Challenge. Preference will be given to uses with innovative characteristics in the payments market, whether they are improvements to existing applications, or completely new applications. Contestants will be asked to technologically develop various use cases for the digital shekel, by using the application programming interface (API) layer at the center of the proposed two-tier central bank digital currency (CBDC) model. The API layer provides functionalities that enable service providers to connect to the digital shekel system and offer end users among the public a wide and innovative range of services, while maintaining end users' privacy and the security and reliability of the payment system.