The National Bank of Cambodia along with Japan-based distributed ledger tech startup Soramitsu announced that it is working on to co-develop the open source Hyperledger Iroha blockchain project.

The Cambodian bank will study on the implications of blockchain technology and will contribute to the open source development of Iroha as well as developing new payment infrastructures. According to Soramitsu co-CEO Makoto Takemiya, although there has been various central banks that are studying the technology globally, the central bank has agreed to go beyond ‘just studying’ applications, CoinDesk reported.

“This is extremely exciting because their programmers intimately know what financial institutions need and can help make Hyperledger Iroha ready for systemically important payment systems,” Takemiya told CoinDesk.

With the help of Hyperledger Iroha, currencies can be given logic through smart contracts in order to create programmable money, where the conditions of transacting can be enforced by computer programs.

Soramitsu serves as the co-maintainer of the distributed ledger platform, Hyperledger Iroha. Last September Soramitsu announced the open sourcing and proposal of Iroha. It aims to create a safe and convenient way to manage digital identities using blockchain technology.

Last month, Japanese electronics conglomerate Panasonic said that it is one among five companies that are contributing to the Hyperledger Iroha project. The other companies that have entered into the Iroha project include Indetail, Intec, CAC and NTT Data.