Building upon prior work demonstrating the integration of banks running the Temenos platform with CBDC platforms such as Hyperledger Besu and R3 Corda, Temenos has executed additional use cases. These include secure non-custodial wallet creation via a mobile app developed using Temenos Visualiser, transaction authorisation to fund wallets from integrated deposit accounts, management of offline payments, and synchronization of transactions with the core ledger through the Temenos fulfilment service layer.
Key use cases demonstrated in this proof-of-concept encompassed the secure creation of new wallets. This involved generating a private key within the Temenos Visualiser app runtime and utilising the phone's secure enclave to generate a cryptographic key for encryption. The sensitive key remained protected within the enclave, safeguarded against external threats. Only non-sensitive data, such as the public key and account identification details, left the mobile device and were transmitted to the fulfilment service.
According to Temenos, offline payments are a vital requirement for numerous central banks, but they present various technical challenges. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) project, 'Polaris: handbook for offline payments with CBDC,' outlines several offline payment approaches. In this proof-of-concept, Temenos evaluated one of these models, successfully demonstrating staged offline payments in which one or both parties synchronized transactions with the core ledger to settle offline-transferred value.
Temenos' experts decided to implement contactless payments using near-field communication (NFC). In this context, one mobile device operated as a Host Card Emulation (HCE) device, while another served as an NFC reader. The demonstration showcased the exchange of cryptographically signed transaction data between mobile phones without the need for an internet connection.
Both devices retained local records of offline transaction data, tracking settled and unsettled balances. To settle transactions, one of the devices synchronized with the core ledger via the company's fulfilment service. Once the transaction was confirmed and settled, the available balance within the mobile wallet was updated, allowing the value to be used in subsequent transactions.
Through this proof-of-concept, Temenos aimed to illustrate the capacity of the Temenos banking platform to support various CBDC wallet functionalities, including offline payments based on one of the standard BIS models. Further exploration of alternative models may be undertaken in the future.
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