Category: Double Offline

Retail CBDC payments in Latin America and the Caribbean

December 2020 

Source: https://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qt2012f.pdf

Retail payment services in Latin America and the Caribbean are characterised by high costs and insufficient access for large swathes of the region’s population. To overcome these limitations, some of the larger central banks in the region have taken the lead to introduce fast retail payments and develop an open banking ecosystem. Several others have launched central bank digital currency pilots. The shift to digital payments, which is supported by these policy initiatives, is likely to receive further impetus from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Key takeaways

• Limited access to retail payment services and their high costs are significant challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean.

• Central banks in the region have undertaken major initiatives aimed at promoting more efficient and inclusive payment systems.

• The Covid-19 pandemic should reinforce the momentum of these policy initiatives, as it has accelerated the shift to digital payments and underscored the need for more inclusive and lower-cost payments.

Current Retail Payment Technology: QR Code and NFC

CoDi in Mexico and Pix in Brazil are fast retail payment systems (FRPS) that allow users to execute and finalise payments

in real time and are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year, through a platform operated by the respective central banks.

CoDi and Pix share many common features but also present some differences (Table 1). From the viewpoint of final users, coverage is identical. Both are available virtually to all transaction account holders for sending payments.

However, some participating institutions cannot receive payments within CoDi. By contrast, in Pix it is compulsory for all participating PSPs to provide their customers with all the functionalities for initiating and receiving instant payments in their mobile applications. As for access channels, both systems allow payments through mobile devices when a quick response (QR) code is scanned or by using near field communication (NFC) technology.

China Digital Currency

易宝时 双离线支付技术介绍

雙離綫支付、一個在中國數字貨幣內陌生的詞彙, 但它的重要性卻不比其區塊鏈或加密技術為低。

在中國數字貨幣的江湖裡、更有傳言 “双離不出、誰與爭鋒?”

數字貨幣不應該是在綫支付嗎? 但是現在不但要離綫支付、還要双離綫支付!

中國數字貨幣的目光和一般數字加密貨幣的層次是不一樣的。它的目標是完全代替人民幣、央行規定它必須跟人民幣能在所有的場景使用、包括偏遠地區或地下停車場等無网絡覆蓋地方。双離綫支付是指受款方和付款方都是沒有連上网絡。中國數字貨幣主要目標是一路一帶跨國應用、這些國家的网絡建設还是很落後呢!

當過去廿年全世界努力在發展在線支付技術、如微信支付、支付寶等。双離綫支付、仿佛被遺忘了。

Apple Pay 和Google Pay 在2014年中雄心壯志地推手機錢包、那是真正的双離綫支付。 可是Apple Pay 是封閉式、不支持第三方開發支付應用, 而Google Pay 代表Android OS 則受NFC短距離通訊晶片在手機的普及率過低、不被用家接受。

iBonus Limited 易寶時有限公司、獲香港政府創新基金的支持、花了六年的時間、鍥而不捨地研發應用於智慧城市票務及數字貨幣手機双離綫支付技術, 並於今年七月、獲得了國際知名Juniper Research 智慧城市手機支付金獎。

採用專利的雙二維碼及藍牙技術、唯一能支持所有iOS 和Android OS 手機雙離綫支付、而交易時間在一秒內完成。

於十一月二日、更率先與香港匯豐銀行推出建基於”沙盒”上的中國數字貨幣双離錢支付的演試平台。

這對於香港金融科技及創新業務在大灣區及一路一帶發展的一個重要里程碑。

Authorized Representative

It is to certify that Andy Ho of Carbon World Limited is our authorized representative to negotiate the exclusive right to use our double offline payment technology for Digital Currency in Hong Kong, Macau, and China.


Carbon World Limited is a Hong Kong-registered company with an operating address in Room 915, Fo Tan Industrial Centre, Fo Tan, NT, HK.

Dutch central bank licenses first digital currency startup

https://coingeek.com/dutch-central-bank-licenses-first-digital-currency-startup-since-crackdown/

The regulator issued a license to AMDAX, allowing the company to process digital currency transactions.

Known as De Nederlandsche Bank, the regulator adopted the European Union’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5) in April 2020

AMDAX co-founder Valentino Cremona believes that the registration is a big step forward, not just for his company but the industry as a whole. It will lead to the adoption and acceptance of digital currencies, he said.

Retail Central Bank Digital Currency: online and offline usability

https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2020/sep/retail-central-bank-digital-currency-design-considerations-rationales-and-implications.html

Reserve Bank of Australia 17th Sept. 2020

Decisions regarding in-person, online and offline usability

If a retail CBDC was being designed as a replacement for physical cash then, at a minimum, it would need to facilitate in-person payments – for example between two individuals or from an individual to a merchant in the retail environment. But, being an electronic system, it would presumably be possible to design it so that the CBDC could also be used to make remote (or online) payments. In this way it would function in much the same way as cards currently do.

As a form of electronic payment system, CBDC might be constrained by the availability of electricity and telecommunications systems, in contrast to physical cash which is ‘always on’ for exchange purposes. However, as noted above, it may be possible to design a CBDC system in such a way that it could be used (at least temporarily) in an ‘offline’ mode, which would be useful in remote locations and offer resilience benefits when power and telecommunications networks were down. For example, it might be possible for CBDC stored on a mobile device or some other small, battery-powered user-access device to be securely transferred to another device via wireless technologies even in the absence of power and telecommunications. However, there would still be a periodic need for power and network connectivity to reload or redeem CBDC balances against commercial bank deposits (and to recharge any batteries). As noted above, an offline mode might be easier to implement with a token-based system than an account-based system.

The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2021 signal India’s first clear intent to launch the ‘digital rupee’.

https://theprint.in/opinion/govt-can-ban-bitcoin-but-for-digital-rupee-to-succeed-india-has-to-do-a-lot/608542/

theprint.in 22 Feb. 2021

Offline vs online capabilities

Ease of use will be crucial to the wide-spread adoption of India’s CBDC. For this, it would be necessary that the ‘digital rupee’ has offline functionality. Several countries are exploring the possibility of enabling offline digital currency transactions. The primary medium being explored for offline transactions are smartphones, smart cards, and wearable devices. However, for a country like India, options such as feature phones or other low-cost technologies accessible to a common man should also be considered.

The last mile

To reach the last mile, it is important to consider the devices that people can use for digital rupee transactions. Anything that is ‘digital’ needs to be stored on a digital medium (e.g. laptop, PC, USB drive, phone, etc.). Although smartphones currently show considerable promise for offline transactions, the reality is that, as of December 2019, smartphone penetration stood at less than 40 per cent in India. Smart sim card-based feature phones, smart cards, wearable devices, and other low-cost technologies should be explored as alternatives or even supplemental options.

VISA explores the offline exchange of digital cash in Central Bank Digital Currency

VISA explores the offline exchange of digital cash and how it could benefit consumers and economies, everywhere

https://usa.visa.com/visa-everywhere/blog/bdp/2020/12/17/central-bank-digital-1608165518834.html

Tackling design hurdles in Offline Transaction


As central banks consider frameworks for reaping the benefits of CBDC, some common design challenges have emerged. For example, how might digital currencies be exchanged in person, when neither the buyer nor the seller has a connection to the internet? Today the only reliable, real-time medium of exchange in an offline context is physical cash. For CBDC to have utility as an alternative to physical cash, it must be useable for face-to-face transactions occurring offline.

About iBonus Limited

Our solution with award-winning and patent-pending QR-BLE-QR communication supports 99% of smartphones (IOS and Android), and with a transaction time of less than 1 second on average. Learn more