Hong Kong wrapped up the first phase of its CBDC pilot according to a report on Monday.

However, it’s still unclear if Hong Kong will seek to introduce e-HKD, the retail version of its CBDC.

Despite the uncertainty, the project highlighted potentially “unique” areas including atomic settlement, tokenization and programmability.   

The project found that the programmability of the CBDC may be able to “improve customer protections and promote trust” between businesses and consumers through smart contracts.

A “retail escrow product” was floated and tested by the China Construction Bank Asia and Hong Kong’s Bank of China. Essentially, consumers could put a prepayment in…

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