Tech giant Samsung Electronics has reportedly teamed up with South Korea's central bank to conduct research on a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for offline payments.
On May 15, the Bank of Korea (BOK) and Samsung signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to study an offline CBDC, local media outlet KBS World reported. The collaboration will see the parties research the offline capabilities of a central bank-issued CBDC. Samsung is also participating in the second phase of the Bank of Korea's 10-month CBDC simulation experiment study involving retail use of CBDC. The first phase of the Bank of Korea's CBDC research tested basic functions such as issuance, distribute tion, and redemption of CBDC.
The latest memory of understanding aims to test the potential of a South Korean CBDC for remittances and payments using near-field communication (NFC) on Samsung mobile devices rather than the internet. Won-Joon Choi, vice president of Samsung Electronics, revealed that the The partnership enables the tech giant to apply Samsung's advanced security technology to the digital currency field. He added: "Based on the cooperation between the two companies, we expect to make a great contribution to the development of global offline CBDC technology."
As part of the collaboration, Samsung has reportedly obtained hardware certification at Security International Common Criteria Assessment Assurance Level Six, which includes seven levels of security function requirements. Despite interest in CBDCs, Samsung recently banned employees from us ing generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT on all Samsung-owned devices and internal networks.
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Samsung rolled out the policy after a staff member uploaded “sensitive code” to the platform. An internal memo addressing the matter follows:
"Headquarters is reviewing safety measures to create a safe environment for the safe use of generative artificial intelligence to improve employee productivity and efficiency."
Banking giants including JPMorgan, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup have also limited the use of generative AI tools.
