BIS Publish Project Tourbillon Trial Results

On November 29th 2023, The Bank for International Settlements published a paper describing the piloting of a retail Central Bank Digital Currency created by IBM in collaboration with Swiss National Bank under the name ‘Project Tourbillion’ (Read more about it here). These trails lasted throughout 2023 and proved that a cash-like CBDC with privacy features is not only possible but was demonstrably practical.

On publication, Mário Yaksetig, one of the developers with the XX Network mentioned a few things in the Telegram Group, which he has suggested will be fleshed out during a dedicated AMA in the future:

Main takeaways:
– No programmability (i.e., no ability to freeze your funds. It’s Your money!)
– Payer anonymity: No one knows you are making a payment
– Quantum security (money is hash-based)
– And we get a couple of other interesting properties from using cMix for ‘withdrawals’.

Using the XX Network’s cMixx network for the privacy layer at the network level, the paper also mentions the recent innovations in XX’s tech stack (cMixx+) which will further enhance this model using David Chaum’s eCash and eCash 2.0 designs. David is cited as a technical advisor on the project.

Read/download the results and/or watch the two video summaries below.

A more technical summary with Thomas Moser of the Swiss National Bank and David Chaum:

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