Minutes of the CBDC Technology Forum – July 2023

Minutes

Item 1: Welcome

Tom Mutton (Chair) welcomed Members to the seventh meeting of the CBDC Technology Forum and thanked Members for submitting responses to the Consultation Paper and the Technology Working Paper.

Item 2: Discussion of design phase intentions

The Bank of England explained that they were now at the start of the design phase of the digital pound roadmap, during which they would conduct experiments and proofs of concept, and develop a detailed digital pound blueprint. They noted that the design phase was expected to last for 2-3 years, after which a decision would be made on whether or not to proceed to the build phase.

The Bank of England explained that the role of the Technology Forum in the design phase was to provide ideas and expert analysis that could inform and challenge the Bank of England’s experiments and the eventual digital pound blueprint.

Item 3: New members

The Bank of England informed Members that applications to the Technology Forum re-opened for a limited number of places in early July 2023, and welcomed new members. The Bank of England highlighted there was strong interest for places in the Technology Forum, but that membership had to be kept to a manageable number conducive to high quality discussions. Therefore, it was important that Members of the Technology Forum continued to actively participate in the meetings, and future – subgroups.

Item 4: Subgroup membership

The Bank of England noted, at the last meeting of the Technology Forum, there was strong support for the creation of time limited subgroups. Accordingly, four subgroups will be established, which will run for a fixed period of 6-12 months. Those subgroups will meet to discuss specific topics chosen by the Bank of England, and present their ideas at the Technology Forum meetings. The subgroups will be led by Forum Members, with a representative from the Bank of England present, as an observer, on each subgroup.

The Bank of England noted that Members may, with the prior permission of the Bank, invite subject-matter experts (SMEs) from their organisations to contribute to their subgroups. The Bank of England further noted that those SMEs might be permitted to attend the relevant Technology Forum meetings for agenda items where the work of that subgroup is being discussed.

The Bank of England thanked Members for choosing to participate in the different subgroups and gave an overview of the topics: (1) technology options to ensure privacy in a digital pound, and design of the alias service; (2) models of interaction between PIPs; (3) core ledger technology; and (4) requirements for providing a platform for innovation. Members were supportive of those topics.

One Member noted that interoperability was a common theme across the discussion topics and wondered whether there would be interactions between the subgroups. The Bank of England explained that in order to encourage open sharing of ideas, they recommend that subgroups share ideas at the Technology Forum meetings, rather than informally among themselves.

One Member asked what inputs the subgroups should base their work or ideas on. The Bank of England noted that the Technology Working Paper provides guidance on their thinking on the technical requirements for the digital pound, so Members should be guided by the positions set out in that paper.

Another Member asked whether subgroups could conduct practical experiments relevant to their discussion topics. The Bank of England noted that Forum Members could, on their own initiative, conduct practical work to inform their subgroup’s thinking, but the Bank of England would not be involved in, or associated with, those experiments.

The Bank of England encouraged subgroup leads to organise their meetings and be ready to update the Technology Forum on their objectives, timeframes, and next steps at the next Technology Forum meeting in October 2023.

Closing remarks

The Chair closed the meeting and thanked Members for contributions.

Attendees

Bank of England

Tom Mutton (Chair)

Anthony O’Brien

Charlie Dyos-Hunter

Danny Russell

Heena Rabadia

Maximilian Malcolm

Nishma Shoor

Simon Scorer

Stephanie Haffner

Will Lovell

Shantel Mullings

Members

Adrian Field (OneID)

Alan Ainsworth (Open Banking)

Andrew Flatt (Archax)

Ashley Lannquist (IMF)

Bejoy Das Gupta (eCurrency)

David MacKeith (AWS)

Dominic Black (Ledgerz)

Gary King (Lloyds)

Geoff Goodell (UCL)

Georgios Samakovitis (University of Greenwich)

Joshua Jeeson Daniel (JP Morgan)

Julia Demidova (FIS)

Keith Bear (Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance)

Kene Ezeji-Okoye (Millicent Labs)

Lars Hupel (Giesecke+Devrient)

Lauren Del Giudice (Idemia)

Lee Braine (Barclays)

Mark Shaw (Spotify)

Michael Adams (Quali-Sign)

Patrick O’Donnell (Mastercard)

Paul Carey (Stripe)

Paul Lucas (IBM)

Richard Brown (R3)

Sarah Meiklejohn (IC3)

Simon Brayshaw (Motorway)

Tom Beresford (Starling Bank)

Vikram Kimyani (Oracle)

Apologies

Alain Martin (Thales)

Edwin Aoki (PayPal)

Inga Mullins (Fluency)

James Whittle (Pay.UK)

Tim Moncrieff (Visa)

Will Drewry (Google)