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So, the RBA says its pilot project yielded valuable insights into how a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in Australia, possibly alongside other innovations in digital money, could be used by industry to improve the capabilities of the payments system.
It says the various use cases explored in the project highlighted a range of areas where tokenised money could add value, including by facilitating programmable payments, atomic settlement in tokenised asset markets, and offline payments.
It says the project also highlighted opportunities for CBDC to support the development of new forms of privately-issued digital money (including tokenised bank deposits or CBDC-backed stablecoins) which could address some of the business needs identified in the use case submissions.
In this sense, a CBDC could be viewed as an enabling complement to, rather than substitute for, private sector innovation," it says.
"Finally, it is important to recognise the limits in the scope of this project and its place in the broader sweep of CBDC-related research that has been underway for a number of years at the RBA and elsewhere.
"The project did not set out to provide a complete assessment of the costs, benefits, risks and other implications of introducing a CBDC.
"Instead, it was more narrowly focused on exploring how a CBDC could be used by industry to enhance the functioning of the payments system.
"It is our hope and expectation that the findings from this project will help to inform a future research agenda, including further work the project sponsors intend to undertake over the coming years as they explore the policy case for a CBDC.
"Given the many issues that are yet to be resolved, any decision on a CBDC in Australia is likely to be some years away.