#16: CBDC Offline Capabilities

CBDC Broadcast

16 May

24th May 2023

With:

| Beju Shah (BIS Innovation Hub)

| Dr. Lars Hupel (Giesecke+Devrient)

In this session, Beju Shah (BIS Innovation Hub) and Dr. Lars Hupel (Giesecke+Devrient) join FNA to discuss the architecture of offline CBDCs. As central banks aim to replicate the resilience of physical cash, the ability to transact without internet connectivity has become a non-negotiable requirement for financial inclusion, privacy, and national security.

Drawing from the BIS Project Polaris (the definitive handbook for offline CBDC) and G+D's Filia® solution, our guests examine how hardware-based security—such as Secure Elements (SE) and Trusted Execution Environments (TEE)—can prevent double-spending without a real-time ledger. They also address the "privacy-transparency" trade-off, exploring how offline protocols can offer the anonymity of cash while maintaining regulatory guardrails through transaction limits and secure hardware.

Key Discussion Points:

The Resilience Mandate: Why offline capability is critical for maintaining economic activity during natural disasters, power outages, or cyber-attacks.
Security vs. Usability: Analyzing the hardware requirements (smartcards, wearables, and smartphones) needed to store and verify digital value locally.
Risk Mitigation: How to manage the unique threats of offline environments, such as "double-spending" and "counterfeiting" of digital tokens.
Inclusion by Design: Strategies for reaching unbanked populations and those in remote regions with low-cost, offline-first hardware.
Consecutive Offline Payments: Exploring the technical challenge of "transitive" payments—where value moves through multiple offline hands before re-syncing with the ledger.

Watch on Demand:

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