The authorities of Singapore announced on completion of work on the project for payment network based on the blockchain. What follows is the commercial launch of the Ubin network.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), in partnership with the central bank of the country, started work on the project Ubin in 2017. One of the ideas was the creation of a digital version of the Singaporean dollar (SGD). Other steps included research of the blockchain and distributed registry technology for building a clearing (system for cashless payment between countries, companies, enterprises, and banks) and settlements on payments and securities using digital Singapore dollars.
In the final stages of its project, MAS cooperated with the Singaporean investment company Temasek and the famous American investment bank JPMorgan. The work over the prototype of the payment network was finalized in November 2019. Since last November to July this year, the project was in a testing stage – the regulator tested the ability of the network to function smoothly with commercial blockchain-based applications.
Last month Ravi Menon, the executive director of MAS, announced that Singapore plans to work closely with China in order to experiment with the idea for central bank cryptocurrency (CBDC).
At the same time supported by the government blockchain-based projects by the private sector in Singapore also flourish and create blockchain and crypto innovations. In the last 12 months, the number of blockchain-based companies increased by 50%.
