BOK, Samsung Ink MoU on Offline Research on CBDC

The Bank of Korea (BOK) teamed up with tech giant Samsung to do research on the offline payment of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) in South Korea.

BOK and Samsung signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for offline research on CBDC and cooperating in the offline payment sector, Cointelegraph reported.

Samsung reportedly took part in the second phase of the pilot stage of BOK’s research on digital assets. This stage included enabling transfers and payments between devices through near-field communication even without an internet connection. The first phase tested the CBDC’s basic functions, including its issuance, redemption, and distribution.

The MoU aims to use Samsung mobiles to test the South Korean digital currency’s potential in conducting remittances and payments instead of the Internet.

In this regard, Samsung Electronics Vice President Won-Joon Choi said the deal allows to make use of Samsung’s state-of-art technology in the usage of digital currency, noting: “Based on cooperation between the two companies, We expect to be able to make a great contribution to the development of global offline CBDC technology.”

South Korea was eyeing introducing a crypto-tracking system to combat money laundering initiatives and recover funds linked to criminal activities in 2023.

This came in an announcement made by the South Korean Ministry of Justice, which announced to launch “Virtual Currency Tracking System” soon to observe the transaction history, get information related to transactions and make sure of the funds’ source before and after the remittance. The new tracking system is expected to be launched by the second half of 2023.

In a statement, the South Korean ministry noted: “In response to the sophistication of crime, we will improve the forensic infrastructure (infrastructure). We will build a criminal justice system that meets international standards (global standards).”

Related to this issue, the South Korean police inked five agreements with five local crypto exchanges in the last year to cooperate in stopping the exploitation of virtual assets and creating a safe trading environment through business agreements.