Called Project Ubin, the MAS plan is to make any institutionally crucial or high-value transactions settle instantly. The system would executive smart contracts using tokenized international currencies and keep the transactions private using zero-knowledge proofs and Intel’s security.

The Project Ubin partnership includes banking consortium R3, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan, Credit Suisse, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. The project is now in its second phase, following publication of a white paper in March. The second phase involves prototype research and determining the best platform to integrate with the various bank security entities.

The third step will expand the current lineup of cryptocurrencies issued by digital banks to other central banks. The partnership also must validate policy questions and the effect on monetary policy. A consultation paper is anticipated to update the findings of Project Ubin at a late stage.