The partnership will see the National Bank of Georgia and Ripple jointly plan the execution and delivery of the pilot program using the Ripple CBDC Platform.
The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) has chosen Ripple, the leader in enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions, as the official technology partner for its Digital Lari (GEL) pilot project. The pilot will experiment with Ripple’s CBDC technology and evaluate the practical use cases to gauge potential benefits for the public sector, businesses and retail users.
Ripple’s success following a competitive selection process was announced by NBG earlier today. In its announcement, NBG explained that it chose Ripple to support its national digital currency pilot due to its “deep understanding of the project's purposes and use cases, as well as a full commitment to the project's success, sustainable business continuity, clear project development roadmap, and gradual deployment approach to use-cases.” Additionally, NBG highlighted Ripple’s “experience in conducting real-life pilot project deployments, ranging from primary CBDC digital infrastructure to smart contracts and tokenization.”
Ripple’s award-winning CBDC solution, the Ripple CBDC Platform, stood out for its ability to provide a holistic end-to-end solution that enables central banks, financial institutions, and governments to seamlessly mint, manage, transact and redeem CBDCs. The technology is powered by the XRP Ledger (XRPL), an energy-efficient and open-source blockchain.
Commenting on Ripple’s selection, Natia Turnava, Acting Governor and Member of the Board of the National Bank of Georgia, said: “We were pleased to select Ripple as the official technology partner for our Digital Lari (GEL) pilot project following a thorough review of all shortlisted parties. The committee selected Ripple due to its technical excellence and the expertise of its team. We look forward to moving ahead with Ripple, we are grateful to all other participating companies for their interest and efforts in the selection process.”
James Wallis, VP of Central Bank Engagements at Ripple, added: "The National Bank of Georgia is taking a global lead in exploring how it can use blockchain technology to take its economy into the digital era. By harnessing the power of the Ripple CBDC Platform, this pilot will pave the way for transformative advancements in the utilization of blockchain technology within the public sector. Our partnership with NBG demonstrates our commitment to driving innovation and efficiency, ultimately empowering public and private entities to unlock the full potential of secure and transparent blockchain transactions.”
Ripple was chosen as NBG’s single technology partner during a rigorous selection process involving nine shortlisted companies which were assessed on their capabilities to support the pilot. Now that the selection phase is complete, NBG will move to the pilot stage to test the Ripple CBDC platform in a live environment to enable them to evaluate select use cases.
Ripple has announced five pilot programs with governments and central banks in Bhutan, Palau, Montenegro, Colombia, and Hong Kong and is in discussions with over 20 countries around the world. To learn more about the Digital Lari pilot program and its roadmap, see the official white paper and for more information on the Ripple CBDC Platform visit: https://ripple.com/solutions/central-bank-digital-currency/.