South Africa’s Central Bank “Approves” an Ethereum-Based Blockchain Payments Trial
The results from Project Khokha of South Africa’s central bank has been a success. The project’s proof-of-concept trial to replicate interbank payments and settlements on an Ethereum-based platform has been approved as a success. From the report published by South Africa Reserve Bank (SARB) on a trial of the blockchain-based wholesale payment system (which lasted for nearly 3 months) has confirmed the success of the system.
As the central bank puts it;
The practical platform was deployed in a realistic test environment.
From the research, the results show that the blockchain system is able to handle South Africa’s Real Time Gross Settlement System (SAMOS) 70,000 transactions in a period of about 75 minutes. Mathematically, this shows that on average, the system processes transactions within 2 seconds with confidentiality and a 100% settlement rate.
Despite all the success in this trial phase, the central bank has insisted that there are still other issues that should be tackled and sorted out before putting the blockchain settlement system into use in South Africa. Furthermore, the central bank cited that the blockchain settlement system is not intended to overthrow SAMOS but instead provide a better solution in South Africa’s banking sector.
Other high profile local banks that were involved in this pilot include Absa, Capitec, Discovery bank, among others.
This is just the start. Many Africa countries such as Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, among others are struggling to integrate the blockchain technology to solve the critical problems affecting the countries. Hopefully, their thirst to understand and use the technology to interestingly solve problems will be quenched.
Recently, Zimbabwe launched their first Bitcoin ATM to ease the exchange of cryptocurrencies. Uganda is on the journey of integrating blockchain technology to improve the delivery of services. Kenya has nominated an 11-member task force that will study the challenges and benefits associated with blockchain technology.
In the near future, we hope to see more African countries embracing the blockchain technology.
