The PoCs broadly focus on using blockchain to both back-up the central banks current real-time gross settlement system (RTGS), called the Brazilian Payment System, as well as better align the organization with the growing momentum for central banks to innovate using blockchain technology.
While the blockchain team at Brazils central bank had considered a number of use cases, including enabling foreign trade in local currencies and an identity management system, as far back as January 2018, it ultimately selected RTGS as its focus.
Instead of being netted periodically, RTGS is used to allow banks to settle their large-value debits immediately as they occur. Because these transactions are relatively infrequent, they have been identified by multiple central banks as a potential use case for blockchain.
The bank processes 314,000 transactions per day, moving a total of about USD 255 billion by todays exchange rate. But while RTGS is the primary focus of the central banks blockchain work, its also testing a blockchain-based “information exchange”.
Revealed for the first time to CoinDesk, the exchange, called Know Your Citizen (seemingly a play on the regulator-mandated know-your-customer compliance), is powered by Quorom in Microsofts Azure cloud. It also uses Truffle, a popular Ethereum development framework, to interact with smart contracts.
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