Boston – The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston today announced a multiyear collaboration with the Digital Currency Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to perform technical research related to a central bank digital currency. The research project will explore the use of existing and new technologies to build and test a hypothetical digital currency platform.
“We are thrilled to be working with the Digital Currency Initiative at MIT and our colleagues in the Federal Reserve System to learn the intricacies of building a CBDC platform,” said Boston Fed President and CEO Eric Rosengren. “Jim Cunha is leading our team here in Boston, and I know they are committed to researching and testing the leading technologies available to determine if they can meet the design requirements of a U.S. based central bank digital currency.”
The Boston Fed and MIT have structured the research collaboration into work phases that extend over two to three years. The first phase will involve jointly building and testing a hypothetical central bank digital currency for wide-scale, general purpose use. The objective in this phase will be to determine how to architect a scalable, accessible cryptographic platform to meet the needs of a theoretical U.S. dollar CBDC, including stringent design requirements for speed, security, privacy and resiliency.
