SWIFT prepares global platform for bitcoin alternatives

[DrBeer]

According to public sources: Global bank messaging network SWIFT plans to create a new platform in the next one to two years to connect the wave of central bank digital currencies currently being developed to the existing financial system, Reuters writes.

"We are looking at a roadmap to make a product (launch as a product) within the next 12 to 24 months. We are moving from the experimental stage to what will become a reality. It's moving from the experimental stage to what is becoming a reality," SWIFT's head of innovation Nick Kerrigan said.

It is noted that this move will be one of the most significant for the CBDC (digital currencies issued by a particular country's central bank) ecosystem, given SWIFT's key role in the global banking system. However, it is likely to be finalized before the first major projects are launched.


Your opinion - how could this affect the global banking system ? In your opinion - is it recognition of cryptocurrencies or something else ?

[DrBeer]

More information:

SWIFT's Head of Innovation pointed out that the latest study, which lasted 6 months and involved a group of 38 central banks, commercial banks and settlement platforms, was one of the largest global collaborations to date on CBDCs and "tokenized" assets.

It focused on enabling CBDCs from different countries to be shared across countries, even if they are built on different underlying technologies or "protocols", thus reducing the risks of fragmentation of payment systems.

The study also found that they can be used in very complex trade or currency payments and could potentially be automated to make these processes faster and cheaper.

The results, which also proved that banks could use existing infrastructure, were deemed a success by all participants and gave SWIFT time to work, Kerigan said.

Countries such as the Bahamas, Nigeria and Jamaica already have working CBDCs. China has made significant progress in testing the e-yuan in real life. The European Central Bank is also working on the digital euro, and the Bank for International Settlements, the world's premier group of central banks, is conducting numerous cross-border trials.

Benefits of SWIFT
SWIFT is an international interbank system for transmitting information and making payments. Its main advantage is that the existing network is already in use in more than 200 countries and connects more than 11,500 banks and funds that use it to transfer trillions of dollars every day.

[hatshepsut93]

Your opinion - how could this affect the global banking system ? In your opinion - is it recognition of cryptocurrencies or something else ?

We can't know without knowing the implementation details. Are those CBDCs have architecture similar to decentralized cryptocurrencies, or are they just government-run payment systems that exist on a government-owned server architecture? And what would SWIFT offer - a system where you can make any transaction without censorship, or will SWIFT have to approve every transaction?

Can't even call it a Bitcoin alternative if it has none of the properties of Bitcoin.

[Reatim]

Banks are the exact opposite of cryptocurrency
so I do not understand how they could possibly implement this
without compromising the features that make bitcoin bitcoin.
It is decentralized and banks aren’t so we would need to see
more details to check how they could play around the concept of it.

Do you think that this is something Satoshi expected?

[Darker45]

I won't call it a Bitcoin alternative because it somehow connotes that it shares certain similarities with Bitcoin, when in fact it probably doesn't share even a single feature with Bitcoin. It's centralized, to begin with. In other words, it is antithesis to Bitcoin's philosophy.

We probably can call it a cash alternative. It is after all another form of fiat. It's the kind of fiat money that is tailored to the needs and demands of an increasingly digital and globalized world.

Nothing's special it seems. This is just SWIFT undergoing upgrades.

[hugeblack]

Your opinion - how could this affect the global banking system ? In your opinion - is it recognition of cryptocurrencies or something else ?

No, CBDC is completely different from cryptocurrencies, and perhaps the only thing similar between them is that they are both digital currencies.
I used to think that CBDCs could talk to each other and therefore there was no need for bridges or a third-party network to connect different CBDCs, but if that is true, then CBDCs will not be different from current financial systems, except that the rug has been pulled from commercial banks in the task of distributing cash liquidity and verifying tax compliance.

[franky1]

Dr Beer, i see you are finally looking at the stuff the BIS is doing about CBDC
you are finally catching up, good on you.. finally

you coulda learned this last year

in other news BIS is allowing international central banks to have reserves of cryptoassets (category 2b(things like bitcoin)) as of january 2025, but only between 2%-5% of total holdings/reserves/collateral

in other news BIS is allowing international central banks to have reserves of cryptoassets (category 1a(things like bonds/derivatives/loans(debt notes)) as of january 2025,

in other news BIS is allowing international central banks to have reserves of cryptoassets (category 1b(things like commodities(wheat, gold, oil) as of january 2025,

[God bless u]

I think that's something that was to happen any time because crypto is growing day by day and the governments had to pay attention towards this section. This is not something that's much simple because it will disrupt the current banking system.

If digital assets come into play then due to its easy use case and wider impact people will start to adopt it on a wider scale. Then current notes and the banking system behind it will shift and it is not a case that'll happen within days but it'll require a lot of time. There will be some political oppositions as well it might stop on the way it's not that much easy to change a current developed system.

[Patrol69]

Just as China has introduced its own global currency market to replace the US dollar and is planning to innovate, many banks or institutions will always try to introduce an alternative to Bitcoin. It is easy for an organization or a bank to bring a Bitcoin alternative coin to the market but it is not so easy to make that coin as popular as Bitcoin. No matter how good and how rich China brings the global currency to the market, people will not so easily use their country's global currency instead of the US dollar. Similarly, even if the alternative of Bitcoin is brought to the market, that coin will not be as popular as Bitcoin. Those who have been investing in Bitcoin for a long time will continue to rely on Bitcoin.

[Cryptomultiplier]

So in contrast, what SWIFT is trying to develop is nothing more than an exchange like Binance or any other local crypto exchanges we use, only that this platform will be for CBDC.

I know Crypto assets will be allowed on the platform that's to enable a user buy crypto assets directly including other currencies from the platform and send to a wallet or transact with.

[Die_empty]

I don't see much difference between this service and what SWIFT has been doing. SWIFT is a link by which nations send/receive electronic fiat payments internationally. The only difference is that the current service will be adopting blockchain technology to link the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) of different countries. And I don't see how this is an alternative to Bitcoin since this service will be highly centralised. Many countries might refuse to join this platform because some countries have weaponised the SWIFT platform. It will be preferable for nations to transact directly with their CBDCS than to rely on a third party.

[Upgrade00]

Countries such as the Bahamas, Nigeria and Jamaica already have working CBDCs. China has made significant progress in testing the e-yuan in real life.

To actually check how well the system is working it needs to be adopted on a mass scale in the countries it has been deployed. If the citizens are not using it yet, they cannot check for glitches or potential flaws in the system.

The topic is also misleading. CBDCs are not alternatives to Bitcoin, they are in fact alternatives the the fiat currencies of the respective countries.

[kryptqnick]

It's good that they're already working on a new platform, although to me, it looks like they're jumping the gun. Only a handful of countries are really interested in CBDCs, and even less have actually conducted any kind of testing. For now, it's unclear if they are going to supplement, let alone replace, fiat currencies in the future. Maybe SWIFT is doing it just in case, as they don't want to be left out.
To me, it's not about recognition of cryptocurrencies because CBDCs have little in common with actual cryptos. They are more like a new digital form of fiat, possibly more secure, and certainly more traceable. They're not helpful for adoption of cryptos but not a threat to their adoption either.

[avikz]

It's good that they're already working on a new platform, although to me, it looks like they're jumping the gun. Only a handful of countries are really interested in CBDCs, and even less have actually conducted any kind of testing. For now, it's unclear if they are going to supplement, let alone replace, fiat currencies in the future. Maybe SWIFT is doing it just in case, as they don't want to be left out.
To me, it's not about recognition of cryptocurrencies because CBDCs have little in common with actual cryptos. They are more like a new digital form of fiat, possibly more secure, and certainly more traceable. They're not helpful for adoption of cryptos but not a threat to their adoption either.

Well it's a survival strategy. Every company forecasts business situations based on the ongoing series of events and technologies. SWIFT feels that majority of the big economies will be moved to CBDC within a foreseeable future so they are keeping their platform ready to be used.

It's like predicting the need and then pitch the method of fulfillment when the world needs it.

[franky1]

Countries such as the Bahamas, Nigeria and Jamaica already have working CBDCs. China has made significant progress in testing the e-yuan in real life.

To actually check how well the system is working it needs to be adopted on a mass scale in the countries it has been deployed. If the citizens are not using it yet, they cannot check for glitches or potential flaws in the system.

The topic is also misleading. CBDCs are not alternatives to Bitcoin, they are in fact alternatives the the fiat currencies of the respective countries.

to actually check how well the system is working they dont thrust it out publicly first, they instead test it.. EG alpha, beta test before full release
if you read things like the BIS reports(bank of international settlements) you will see instead of leaping straight to the retail market of citizen accounts balance, they are first doing the wholesale payments between banks(things like swift)

as for the title.. its actually correct because CBDC are not just going to be fiat. but other crypto assets for many asset classes, including mortgages, loans, credit(debt), derivatives, commodities, etc so it will be alot of different assets

[crwth]

Having known what Swift is and what it gave us, different people have the opportunity to use cards, etc for payments. It's something that gave life to the financial system. I'm curious as to what would be the differences that we will see with their product. It can be a game changer for all we know but I'm stomped with as to what it could be.

There's no alternative to Bitcoin 

[franky1]

Having known what Swift is and what it gave us, different people have the opportunity to use cards, etc for payments. It's something that gave life to the financial system. I'm curious as to what would be the differences that we will see with their product. It can be a game changer for all we know but I'm stomped with as to what it could be.

There's no alternative to Bitcoin  

its not meant as a alternative to bitcoin (deflationary/PoW/fixed supply)..  its instead an alternative network as a cryptoasset cryptocurrency in its own right, in a ledger format thats distributed to not be secured in one server farm, but instead distributed cross countries/regions so no one location can be attacked.

the banking world see the benefits of blockchains/crypto (they call it DLT(distributed ledger technology)
benefits of NOT needing:
a single massive server farm
security guards
lots of security software
emergency power backup stations,
back up hardware
onsite IT guys 24/7
.. to prevent single intrusion attacks..

but by instead having it distributed so that even if one location is attacked the others form the natural backup/redundancy that it doesnt matter if one location is attacked/goes offline. it also prevents banking internal errors and staff pilfering by not allowing single user editing(as per some of the security aspects and features of blockchains)
other things like multisig and co-signing ensures funds are only moved when intended

[oktana]

Your opinion - how could this affect the global banking system ? In your opinion - is it recognition of cryptocurrencies or something else ?

It doesn’t sound any different from the normal centralization to me. It’s just adding more ability to transfer across countries and compulsorily with a bank. It just a way for them to probably make more money… imagine having 11,500 banks using your service. This is so much the opposite of Bitcoin. It would positively affect the whole traditional banking system but Bitcoin remains Bitcoin.

[NotATether]

We can't know without knowing the implementation details. Are those CBDCs have architecture similar to decentralized cryptocurrencies, or are they just government-run payment systems that exist on a government-owned server architecture? And what would SWIFT offer - a system where you can make any transaction without censorship, or will SWIFT have to approve every transaction?

It's in the name, bud.

CDBCs - centralized digital bank currencies.

Obviously it's not going to have any of the decentralized properties of crypto, and will probably just be another software extension to what the SWIFT banks are already running.

[o48o]

According to public sources: Global bank messaging network SWIFT plans to create a new platform in the next one to two years to connect the wave of central bank digital currencies currently being developed to the existing financial system, Reuters writes.

"We are looking at a roadmap to make a product (launch as a product) within the next 12 to 24 months. We are moving from the experimental stage to what will become a reality. It's moving from the experimental stage to what is becoming a reality," SWIFT's head of innovation Nick Kerrigan said.

It is noted that this move will be one of the most significant for the CBDC (digital currencies issued by a particular country's central bank) ecosystem, given SWIFT's key role in the global banking system. However, it is likely to be finalized before the first major projects are launched.

Your opinion - how could this affect the global banking system ? In your opinion - is it recognition of cryptocurrencies or something else ?

I wonder if you have used a translation software or something, because quote you provided can only be found from this thread when googled.

However i find it weird if they can put any deadline for this (12 to 24 months) as things are heavily in research state, and while there are pilots going on, it's just too early to know if any of them are even worth using. And it's really hard to predict how and if this would have any affect on cryptocurrencies. But what i can say for sure is that none of the serious CBDC candinates would operate in transparent blockchain. But when it's finished, it most likely will affect on transaction fees positively, and make money laundering more difficult.