Offline payment solution for CBDC proposed by Visa

Visa has published a paper that outlines a potential offline payments solution for central bank digital currencies (CBDC).

Visa’s solution is based on trusted execution environments (TEE). These are partitioned areas in phones and computers where other apps should not be able to snoop and are usually used by wallet applications. Furthermore, Visa also uses typical public key infrastructures (PKI) to encrypt communications with web browsers. A combination of TEE and encryption keys aims to ensure that the person paying funds when their phone is offline cannot double or triple spend the money.

For phones to communicate, they would use Bluetooth or Near Field Communication (NFC). The recipient does not need to have a TEE, so potentially would not need a phone, but the Visa solution requires the sender to have a more sophisticated device.

Not only Visa, but Mastercard has also launched a platform to enable central banks to test CBDCs, according to Ledger Insights.

To learn more about this topic, CBDCs, download our ebook Central Bank Digital Currencies for Dummies – A Quick Guide into CBDCs.