TechFlow news, December 21 — According to Decenter citing sources, the Bank of Korea has recently sent an official document to major banks regarding the second round of CBDC testing. A Bank of Korea official stated, "Details including specific methods and scheduling are currently under discussion."
The second round of testing is considering distributing part of government subsidies in the form of digital currency. The aim is to use CBDCs to restrict how subsidies are used and reduce administrative and management costs associated with subsidy distribution. The Bank of Korea previously launched a three-month CBDC pilot project in April, involving seven banks, but later suspended the project. At that time, the pilot was criticized for its limited practical application value and for imposing cost burdens amounting to hundreds of millions of Korean won on participating banks.
