Canada’s Central Bank is 'Open' to More Blockchain Tests

Canada’s central bank is leaving the door open to the development of additional blockchain prototypes, according to one of its senior officials.

Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Wilkins moderated a panel earlier this week at an event hosted by the Competition Bureau, an independent law enforcement agency based in Canada. During that session, according to Reuters, Wilkins touched on Project Jasper, a blockchain initiative aimed at creating a wholesale payment settlement system.

According to Wilkins, the Bank of Canada would consider similar undertakings in the future.

She told event attendees:

"Project Jasper (is) something new for the Bank of Canada and it is one of the most productive experiments that we've had. We're certainly open to doing more of that."

Canada’s central bank began work on the so-called CAD-coin project last year. Some of the other firms that were involved in the trial include Bank of Montreal, CIBC, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank and TD Bank. R3, the startup behind the distributed ledger consortium, also took part in the trial.

Wilkins wrote in an op-ed for CoinDesk earlier this month that Project Jasper enabled the central bank to learn key lessons about the tech.

She intimated that the initiative would continue, stating that the Bank of Canada’s blockchain team would develop a follow-up iteration that addresses "gaps" in the original version.

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