Australia to launch its digital currency

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Joint Research Centre for Digital Finance at the Australian Institute for Financial Research (DFCRC) have released an announcement that Australia will launch a central bank digital currency pilot in the coming months, Cointelegraph writes.
So far, research is underway into the potential uses and economic benefits of Australia's central bank's digital currency, including possible uses ranging from offline payments to robust trading via Web3, and financial industry participants have been invited to try out the pilot in real time.

According to the statement, the initial phase of the research project will start on 31 March and include the selection of several participants to demonstrate potential uses of digital currency. It will conclude on May 31, with a final report on the outcome evaluating the various use cases due to be published on June 30.
Participants in the trial include both banks, such as Commonwealth Bank and banks in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), and payment systems, such as Mastercard.

Both the pilot and the broader trial will be conducted in parallel to promote hands-on learning for industry participants and promote understanding of how a central bank's digital currency could potentially benefit the Australian financial system and economy.
One of the obvious benefits of digital currency is that money can be moved much faster and cheaper than with legacy systems, and it will allow markets to operate out of hours. The only concern is the objection to digital currency due to a lack of privacy, and this will be one of the factors under consideration.