The BOE posted a request for applications for the CBDC wallet on the government's Digital Marketplace, which is where government organisations can ask for work on various digital projects. The BOE also highlighted some guidelines for the CBDC wallet, including some basic functionalities such as a signup process, a way to update details, a way to see balances and transactions, as well as a notification system.
Moreover, the wallet should be able to accept and hold CBDCs and be able to request peer-to-peer payments through an account ID or QR code. The BOE would also want it to offer support for online payments with businesses.
The project would involve creating an official website for the wallet, an app for iOS and Android, as well as an example merchant website and back-end infrastructure that would serve the wallet website and apps while holding user data and transaction history.
BOE officials cited by cointelegraph.com revealed that no actual work has been done on a CBDC sample wallet and that the bank will not develop an actual user wallet. However, the project does aim to offer a close look at the end-to-end user journey while helping CBDCs become more tangible for internal and external stakeholders.
The five-month project will benefit from a budget of GBP 200,000 or USD 244,000, and the BOE is scheduled to evaluate five suppliers.
In November 2022, the BOE revealed its intention to enter a series of digital pound consultations with HM Treasury, according to cointelegraph.com. The consultation would touch on issues such as design features, benefits and implications for users and businesses, and the results could determine if UK authorities will move forward with a central bank digital currency.
While BOE representatives emphasised that no decision has been made in this regard for the moment, they did highlight that a potential CBDC would only complement cash and bank deposits and would not be replacing them. The same sources revealed that the earliest date for launch of a UK CBDC would be in the second half of the decade.
In March 2022, the Bank of England reached an agreement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab Digital Currency Initiative on a joint twelve-month research project on CBDCs.
The bank said in a statement that the new project was for research purposes only and not intended to develop an operational CBDC. The bank began studying CBDCs in 2020, releasing a discussion paper in March of that year. The DCI responded with a discussion of how a CBDC could meet the objectives stated in the paper.
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