Bank for International Settlements Releases Project mBridge Update

According to Cointelegraph, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published an update on Project mBridge on October 31. The update provides information on the central bank digital currency (CBDC) bridge, its governance structure, and technical details. The project aims to become a minimum viable product for commercial launch next year.The update highlights the use of the Dashing consensus algorithm, a Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus protocol that improves overall protocol performance. It also mentions the use of legal entity identifiers for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism.Project mBridge, initiated in 2021 by the central monetary authorities of China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates in partnership with BIS, plans to significantly reduce the number of steps in cross-border payments by allowing direct, bilateral connectivity between payee's and payer's local banks. The update also reveals a list of 25 observer organizations, including central banks, the International Monetary Fund, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Eleven of these observers are active in the project's sandbox, though their identities were not disclosed.