The Digital Dollar Project, a non-profit promoting the development of the digital dollar, has announced the beginning of a sandbox program to begin investigating the technical implementations of the envisioned digital currency. One of the four participants who will aid the Digital Dollar Project in "exploring technical and business implementation questions" is the fintech company Ripple. The Digital Dollar Project (DDP), a nonprofit leading discussions about the proposed digital U.S. dollar, recently declared the beginning of the "technical Sandbox Program to jumpstart further exploration of technical implementations" of the central bank digital currency (CBDC). The DDP stated that the program's launch is scheduled for October, "with the inaugural cohort focused on cross-border payments." According to a statement, four organizations, Ripple, Digital Asset, EMTECH, and Knox Networks, will support the DDP. The statement also said that participants would have the chance to examine current technology in the real world and research how it might affect business operations and strategies. Additionally, participants will run test runs to identify potential use cases. Explaining her organization’s reasons for launching the sandbox program, Jennifer Lassiter, an executive director with DDP said:
The launch of our Technical Sandbox Program marks the next step in our effort to convene the private and public sector[s] in [the] exploration of a central bank digital currency in the U.S. We understand how important it is to include a diverse set of views and expertise as we look to answer key questions about how the technology could work, the problems we hope to solve, and the ultimate business and individual outcomes we want to achieve.
Lassiter suggested that his organization’s partnership with the private sector not only highlights the importance of collaboration but also helps to lay the foundation “for robust pilots that improve the outcomes and usability of CBDCs.” Each cohort will have two phases, an education phase and a pilot phase, according to the statement. The initial phase's main goal will be to aid DDP partners and participants in gaining a practical and business understanding of the technology. A comparison of the variations in potential design options will be made during this phase. The non-profit group stated that during the pilot phase, tests will be done to "identify and test specific CBDC use-case hypotheses." The information from these findings will be used to educate both the public and private sectors "on how advancing technical solutions can unlock business value in a transformative way."