Hyperledger Global Forum 2021

Dr. Edwards will address challenges and opportunities facing Bakong, a "synthetic CBDC" built by Soramitsu and the National Bank of Cambodia with Hyperledger Iroha at its core. Bakong utilises a two-tier architecture in which digital currency is created and transactions are written on a ledger maintained by the central bank, while KYC and retail account management are handled by commercial bank partners, taking advantage of Iroha's robust permissions system. This allows Bakong to achieve many benefits of a CBDC without the risk of disintermediation. After reviewing the system's socio-technical context, Dr. Edwards will discuss the task of building a consortium of 21 commercial banks within a fragmented payments ecosystem. He will then introduce next steps for Hyperledger Iroha-based fast payment systems, including a cross-border use-case and some potential features of Iroha v2.