Singapore eyes commercial role for its blockchain payments tech

A blockchain project from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and state investor Temasek has completed its final development phase and is now being considered as the basis for commercial payments ventures.

Singapore's central banking authority and Temasek said that with the fifth research cycle for project Ubin now complete, "the next leap will be in implementing live commercial solutions to solve realworld challenges."

Ubin has been running as a multi-currency payments platform and is leveraged work on a blockchain and digital currency at U.S. investment bank J.P. Morgan. Beginning in 2016 as a clearing and settlements initiative, Ubin's fifth phase (launched in November 2019), branched out to other areas, like capital markets, supply chain finance and insurance.

The research found Ubin made complex financial transactions more efficient: lowering fees on foreign currency trading and cross border payments, as well as using smart contracts as a secure alternative to traditional escrow accounts.

The report says banks are now exploring whether Ubin can become the template for a commercial multi-currency platform for users to transact directly with one another. If successful, it could even go on to form the basis for a global payments platform for central banks, the report added.

This was the last experimental phase to see MAS involvement, with Temasek saying it will support efforts to use Ubin for commercial ventures. CoinDesk reached out to MAS for more details on the future of the platform, but hadn't received response by press time.

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