The Digital Currency Global Initiative is a collaboration between ITU and Stanford University and its main objectives are:
- Conduct further research on technical architecture, security, the technical implications and challenges in deployment caused by regulatory and policy requirements for Central Bank Digital Currency and other Digital Currencies, technology trends in digital currency and the use cases related to financial inclusion, operational efficiency and interoperability;
- Construct a set of metrics by which to evaluate the robustness of various digital currency technologies against the requirements set by various stakeholders.
- Identify areas for standardization to enable implementation of digital currency;
- Organize a conference on an annual basis to share information on best practices, technical standards and lessons learned on digital currency implementation.
To achieve the above objectives, the activities of the Digital Currency Global Initiative are focused around three main pillars to drive the synergistic
engagement, innovative use, and
standardization of Digital Currencies. Three working groups are set up under the Standardization pillar:
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Architecture, Interoperability Requirements and Use Cases (AIRU)
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Policy and Governance (PG)
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Security and Assurance (SA)
The pillars and working groups terms of reference are described in details in the
concept note.
The Digital Currency Global Initiative will provide an open and neutral platform for dialogue, knowledge sharing and research on the applications of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and other digital currency implementations. It will pursue the dialogue and research initiated by ITU-T Focus Group on Digital Currency including Digital Fiat Currency (FG DFC) on pilot implementations, use cases and developing specifications for technical standards.
The Initiative will adopt a multi-stakeholder approach and will include participation from
Central Banks, payment service providers, digital currency platform providers, fintech companies, policymakers, standards setting bodies, academic, IT security experts and international organizations.
