The Bank of Korea (BOK) is to issue and circulate a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in 2021 to test its viability as an alternative to cash and other forms of transaction.

“We will create a virtual environment by using blockchain technology and test whether our CBDC can be used for real-world transactions,” a BOK official told the Korea Times.

“The CBDC will be issued and circulated in the virtual world and we are going to test a number of transaction scenarios under a variety of circumstances.

“For now, the BOK does not have any plans to partner with any private companies over the test, and this will be carried out on our own.”

The test is part of the third and final phase of BOK’s CBDC project and is due to start “sometime early next year”.

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