It’s been clear China wants to establish an alternative framework for cross-border trade and payments. Thanks for posting this Donald Day, MBA, MSc(CompSc) this news appeared on CGTN on July 16th (see link below). https://lnkd.in/gGryt3QH It’s great news for Sean Lee and the team at IDA, but also for #hongkong to become the trading centre for digital assets. Project mBridge disappeared from the limelight last year. However, don’t think its going away. It was designed to give China (and its partners) the framework to leverage blockchain, verified credentials and digital money technologies to provide a fast, low-cost, transparent infrastructure for settling cross-border trade in CBDC’s, thereby reducing reliance on using USD in international payments. However, with the evolution of platforms such as the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) Ensemble Network, and the rise of stablecoins in the United States. The pivot is now on stablecoins and tokenized deposits, not CBDC’s. In my view China’s objectives which Mbridge gave are to: 1. Build a shared, wholesale platform to connect central banks, stablecoins issuers and commercial banks for international trade and payments settlement as a public good. 2. Tackle the principal pain points of today’s correspondent-banking and trade finance systems: high fees, lengthy settlement times and operational complexity. 3. Enable real-time or near-real-time settlement in digital. Money (tokenized deposits or stablecoins) to eliminate settlement risk, reduce cost and reduce counterparty credit exposure. 4. Support the direct use of local currencies in cross-border transactions to boost liquidity and uptake. Thereby, contractual arrangements would be denominated in each party’s local or preferred currency, not the USD. 5. Foster new, innovative cross-border payment and trade finance products and services without undermining each jurisdiction’s currency sovereignty, monetary control or financial stability. 6. Provide a self-sovereignty framework to enable national-level decentralized identifier systems to enable real-name verification on a decentralized ledger, privacy-preserving authentication and programmable digital credentials and certificates with cross-border and cross-platform interoperability. Don’t assume its gone away. Patience is a virtue that China regards highly and practices eloquently. Only one company has positioned itself to operate on the MBridge guidelines and deliver this alternative framework, a Hong Kong-based startup, Trade 3, led by Sangwon PARK , Gerardo Lemus, Daniel Chia and Adam Choi Townsend . Which is surprising given that #china represents 15% of global trade. #crypto #digital #innovation #asia #trade #finance JPMorganChase UBS Invesco Ltd. Standard Chartered Santander Revolut GCash HSBC SDAX Sompo SBI Digital Markets SBI Shinsei Bank CPF Group Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Catena Digital Zand Mohammed Almazrouei #pulse