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The Reserve Bank plans to explore 14 potential uses for a digital Australian dollar in conjunction with industry partners in the coming months.
The "limited-scale pilot" will involve a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that's a "real digital claim on the Reserve Bank", the RBA said on Thursday.
Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, Intuit and Mastercard are among the industry leaders taking part in the trial, as well as payment companies Cuscal and Monoova and fintechs Imperium Markets and Fame Capital.
The RBA said it received 140 submissions and selected 14 to test, including using a CBDC for tokenised foreign exchange; corporate bond settlements; offline payments; funds custody; superannuation contributions; and even livestock auctions.
"We are delighted with the enthusiastic engagement by industry in this important research project," RBA assistant governor Brad Jones said.
"It has also been encouraging that the use case providers that have been invited to participate in the pilot span a wide range of entities in the Australian financial system, from smaller fintechs to large financial institutions."
The pilot project will contribute to hands-on learning by industry members and add to policymakers' understanding of how a central bank digital currency could potentially benefit the Australian financial system and economy, Mr Jones said.
The RBA is collaborating with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre on the trial and expects to publish a report by the middle of the year.
One use case being explored is "Digi.cash", "electronic cash" that could be stored on one's phone or computer in the form of an encrypted file, similar to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
The tagline on the project's website is "real crypto. real currency".
Up to $10 million in digi.cash will be issued during the test phase, with transactions being limited to $1,000.
Another trial - the one being run by Mastercard and Cuscal - would involve eAUD tokens issued on the Ethereum blockchain.
