The South Korean central bank has reportedly partnered with tech giant Samsung Electronics to research Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) for offline payments.

According to local media The Korea Herald, the Bank of Korea (BOK) and Samsung has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Monday (15 May) to research offline CBDCs.

Samsung Electronics took part in a CBDC study that had two phases and was conducted by the BOK last year.

The study looked into the use of offline CBDC technology which allows transactions and payments between mobile devices through near field communication (NFC) without online connection, using Samsung’s security chip, called embedded Secure Element.

Both entities will continue working on enabling users to access transactions and payments through Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones and Galaxy Watch even when there is no internet.

Bank of Korea’s Deputy Governor Lee Seung-heon said,

“It is meaningful that (the BOK) was the first to come up with the offline CBDC technology with Samsung Electronics.

 

We hope that Korea can take the lead in offline CBDC technology through this memorandum, as central banks across the world are actively working on it.”

Choi Won-Joon, Executive Vice President and Head of the Mobile Research and Development Office at Samsung’s Mobile eXperience division said,

“We were able to apply Samsung Electronics’ advanced security technology on digital currency through cooperation with the BOK.

 

Through the two sides’ cooperation, we can attribute the growth of global offline CBDC technology.”