Over the last few years, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has been stepping carefully into the world of digital money. Rather than focusing on digital money on private ledgers like all other jurisdictions, the RBA has been the first to explore public networks through practical experimentation in industry. The question evolved from “what can be done with CBDCs?” to “where would digital money actually make a difference?”
Through a series of pilots, the RBA and its research partner, the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC), have started to answer that. But what’s emerging goes far beyond currency. What these projects are really uncovering is the early shape of a new kind of commerce and it’s one that’s programmable, interoperable and built to work with tokenised (as well as traditional) assets.
From CBDC Pilot to Platform Thinking
In 2023, the RBA’s CBDC Pilot ran live experiments (on a private chain) with banks, fintechs, and asset managers. It tested how a digital version of central bank money could be used in areas like carbon credit settlement, escrow automation, and fund redemptions. The pilot showed that programmable digital money opens the door to faster, safer, and more automated financial transactions, particularly in institutional settings.
The follow-up effort, Project Acacia, expands on this by exploring how different types of digital money (not just CBDC this time, but also tokenised bank deposits and stablecoins) can support tokenised asset markets. With Project Acacia, it is less about creating a consumer payment tool and more about reimagining financial infrastructure.
What both pilots highlight though, is that the underlying architecture of commerce is changing. When assets, identity and money all become programmable, new forms of business logic become possible. Financial flows can be automated. Compliance can be built into the transaction layer. Intermediaries need to transform or risk disappearing entirely.
A Broader Shift in How Commerce Works
What is important to note is that the real outcome of these experiments is more than just a single piece of technology. It’s a directional shift in how value is created, moved and governed, thanks to on-chain infrastructure.
In this new model:
- Money becomes a service, more than just a store of value, and is able to carry logic and conditions with it
- Settlement happens in real-time, with fewer intermediaries and less reconciliation
- Assets and obligations are tokenised, with smart contracts handling tasks like interest payments or capital calls
- Compliance is embedded, rather than bolted on after the fact, allowing for safer automation across borders and jurisdictions
This evolution will change how businesses structure deals, how capital is raised and how risk is managed. Over time, this will reshape industries like real estate, funds management, supply chain finance, and infrastructure.
So Where Does Redbelly Network Fit In?
The RBA recently shortlisted Redbelly Network to participate in Project Acacia. Our Infrastructure has been designed from the ground up for a future where finance is digital, programmable, and regulated.
Here are a few reasons why Redbelly fits naturally into this emerging world:
Finality
In a world of tokenised value, transactions can’t be probabilistic. Redbelly provides deterministic finality, meaning once something settles, it’s done. No rollbacks. No forks.
Compliance by Design
Commerce in regulated environments needs controls, not just freedom. Redbelly allows institutions to build rules for identity, provide access and reporting at the protocol level. Compliance doesn’t need to slow things down, it becomes part of the flow.
Scale and Performance
Redbelly can handle thousands of transactions per second, which is critical as more processes move on-chain. Speed without compromising security or governance, is what makes Redbelly truly scalable for the real world.
Smart Contracts With Guardrails
The system supports advanced logic without giving up safety or oversight. That’s essential for use cases like bond issuance, fund redemptions, or real-time escrows and these are the kinds of applications explored in the RBA’s recent pilots.
A Foundation, Not Just a Chain
What the RBA and DFCRC showcase with Project Acacia, is that Australia needs infrastructure for the next-generation commerce, one that’s programmable, compliant and ready for institutional-grade demands.
It won’t be hype or speed that defines the winners in this future. It’ll be the platforms that can handle complexity without chaos, regulation without rigidity and scale without sacrificing control.
At Redbelly Network, we deliver on all this and more. We provide finality without forks, compliance without compromise, performance without trade-offs and smart contracts with safeguards.
Redbelly is the network for open capital markets.