After years of research, the Bank of Canada is preparing to develop its own central bank digital currency (CBDC).
In a June 11 job posting, the central bank announced its plans, saying it wants to "reinvent central banking" and radically rethink the nature of Canadian cash.
"The Bank of Canada is embarking on a program of great societal importance to design a contingent system for a CBDC that can be thought of as a banknote, but in digital form," the bank wrote.
CoinDesk's request for comment was not returned by press time.
However, the job posting included information about both the new role - CBDC project manager - and the project itself, detailing some of the features of a digital banknote.
According to the job posting, Canada's CBDC is intended to protect user privacy (though not to the same extent as cash), be accessible to those without bank accounts or cell phones, function in the event of a power outage, and rival banknotes in terms of security in order to gain the trust of the cash-owning public.
In addition, the bank wants its CBDC to be based on an architecture that "may evolve over several decades" and that can grow with policy goals.
Other technical details, however, remain undefined. The bank has not commented on what technology its CBDC might be based on, whether it would pursue a token-based or account-based model, or how it might create a digital currency that works where electricity does not.
Those details will emerge over the course of the project manager's three-year tenure. During that time, the bank also plans to build a "CBDC pilot system."
This move makes Canada a serious contender in the race to develop CBDCs. Many countries have begun to consider national digital currencies, and some, including China, appear to be on the verge of issuing their own. But few have acted on their findings to the extent that the Bank of Canada is now doing.
To be clear, the bank has not yet committed to issuing a CBDC. As recently as February, officials downplayed the need for a CBDC, arguing that there was "no compelling reason" for a Canadian CBDC unless a private digital currency like Libra became mainstream.
"While the bank is ramping up contingency planning for this eventuality, there is no compelling reason to issue a CBDC at this time," a Bank of Canada spokesperson told CoinDesk after this article was published. "While point-of-sale cash use may have declined during the pandemic, we have not seen a significant change in demand for bills."
Update (June 16, 19:15 UTC): Added comment from a Bank of Canada spokesperson.