Four forms of money. One two-tier monetary system.
The project tested ESA balances, a pilot wCBDC, stablecoins, and deposit tokens. Each plays a different role in supporting atomic settlement, composability, and the singleness of money in a tokenised ecosystem.
A field guide.
ESA balances
Public- Liabilities of the RBA - free of counterparty risk.
- Today's foundation for interbank settlement.
- Eligibility restricted to ADIs + select financial institutions.
Wholesale CBDC
Public- Pilot issued under a deed poll; real legal claim on the RBA.
- Enabled true atomic settlement and composable smart-contract flows.
- Production form still TBD - could be a digital twin of ESAs, or distinct.
Deposit tokens
Private- Claim on issuing bank - leverages existing prudential oversight.
- DTWG examined two transferability models (Box D).
- Tested by CBA (repo) and ANZ (corporate bond + trade payable).
Stablecoins
Private- Used: AUDM, AUDF, AUDD, RLUSD + project-issued.
- Issuer credit risk; lack of remuneration; new tokenised SVF regime incoming.
- Preferred by some when backed (partly/wholly) by central bank money.
Atomic settlement vs. traditional DvP.
In traditional markets, DvP is a chain of linked-but-separate steps across custodians, FMIs, and the RTGS. On a single tokenised platform, the whole chain can become a single all-or-nothing smart-contract operation - and interchange between different money tokens can happen inside the same atomic transaction.
NotCentralised - collateralised loan
Loan, collateral and payment token composed into a single atomic transaction. Collateral released instantly on repayment - no multi-system orchestration, no delays.
Canvas - bond coupon
With the bond and money token on the same ledger, coupon calculation, distribution and settlement execute as a single atomic transaction governed by the bond token.
Two deposit-token transferability models.
Model 1 · Burn-and-reissue
Closer to today's payments. A deposit token isn't transferable to a non-customer - instead, an interbank payment is triggered and the original token is destroyed, with a new token issued by the payee's bank.
Model 2 · Assignable
Novel. Tokens are transferable/assignable across customers of participating banks. The payee receives the bank's token directly and interacts with it in their own bank's wallet.
- Confirm deposit token issuance falls within 'banking business' (Banking Act 1959).
- Declare deposit tokens 'covered financial products' to extend Financial Claims Scheme coverage.
- Exempt deposit-token platforms from 'financial product' classification.
- Prescribe deposit tokens as not being 'virtual assets' under the AML/CTF Act.
Interchange between forms of private money.
Use cases mostly aligned with Model E from the consultation paper - wCBDC plays the ESA-like role between issuers of different private monies. The AP+ variant kept wCBDC on a private chain and used a 'white coin' digital twin on the public chain, with a synchroniser keeping them aligned.
Bilateral interchange
Token issuers establish one-to-one arrangements. Easy for defined pairs, expensive to scale across many.
Multilateral interchange
Shared infrastructure + rules. Higher upfront cost, lower industry total cost. AP+ Token Interchange demonstrated a single industry-wide utility.
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