CBDC

Papua New Guinea's Central Bank and Soramitsu complete CBDC proof of concept

Norbert Gehrke

07 Feb 2025 — 2 min read

The Bank of Papua New Guinea, in cooperation with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and FinTech company Soramitsu, has successfully completed a proof of concept for the country's central bank digital currency (CBDC), Digital Kina.

The Digital Kina's PoC utilizes cutting-edge technology developed by Soramitsu and is supported by the SORA v3 Hub Chain, which is based on the open source Hyperledger Iroha 2 blockchain. This innovative initiative will address the financial challenges facing Papua New Guinea, including financial inclusion, security risks, and underdeveloped financial infrastructure.

The PoC built a secure payment infrastructure that could operate 24 hours a day and demonstrated instantaneous payments and international remittances. Using SORA v3 Hub Chain, users in the Central Bank of Papua New Guinea and Port Moresby conducted real-time payments and person-to-person remittances through a mobile app. Enhanced security features, such as the ability to recover funds in the event of theft or loss, were also successfully tested.

Going forward, the CBPC plans to expand the pilot to more users to refine the system and gather feedback. This next phase will optimize the platform's speed, security and regulatory capabilities to create a more inclusive and robust financial system for Papua New Guinea.

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