The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has partnered with the Digital Finance Corporate Research Center (DFCRC) to launch a pilot project to explore use cases for the government’s stablecoin.

RBA said that the project will be launched in the coming months. The Australian and New Zealand banking group ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, Mastercard payment system, as well as other financial and fintech companies will take part in it. Test participants will explore the potential use cases for Central Bank digital currency and its economic benefits.

In particular, the digital Australian dollar will be tested in offline payments, corporate settlements, auctions and trading in securities with highly liquid assets. In addition, eAUD storage options will be explored.

RBA Deputy Governor Brad Jones said that the pilot project will cover a wide range of Australian financial system actors and will provide insight into how eAUD can improve the country’s economy. Dilip Rao, Head of Digital Currency Research at DFCRC, added that the results of this project will serve as a basis for further research that can play an important role in the tokenization of the economy. The project report will be published around the middle of the year.

At the end of last year, the Central Bank of Australia announced an increase in the interest of financial companies in eAUD, so the regulator expressed concern that its digital currency could displace the state currency and exclude commercial banks from the financial system. Although a few years ago, the RBA stated that government stablecoins would never be able to replace fiat currencies.