Bank of Korea About to Test Its Digital Currency

Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol remarked on Feb. 23 that the central bank almost finished the design and technical study of its central bank digital currency (CBDC).

A CBDC is similar to Bitcoin in that it is a digital currency. However, they differ from each other in that the former is issued by a central bank and the latter is a privately issued currency.

The governor also said that the Bank of Korea’s pilot CBDC system would be established by March this year through external consulting and the bank would test the CBDC in a virtual environment in the second half of this year. “CBDC issuance requires system preparations as well and we are working on this part including legal reviews, too,” he said.