Japan’s MUFG Bank Explores Its Own Digital Currency

More and more banks world over are joining the blockchain bandwagon, with many developing their own digital currency.

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFG), the largest bank in Japan, is the latest addition to this list. According to The Asahi Shimbun, MUFG has developed its own digital currency dubbed “MUFG coin” as part of its research into blockchain and distributed ledger technology, CoinDesk reported.

“MUFG coin, takes advantage of the new technology that is on a network of multiple small computers, it is possible to cheaply build a tamper-resistant "transaction record of the ledger," it referred to as the "block chain"”, according to Google-translated version of the report from The Asahi Shimbun.

The trial started last fall and seeks to lower the costs of managing financial transactions, particularly in the case of peer-to-peer (P2P) transfer and remittances. The project aims at replicating bitcoin’s inherent P2P exchange and mobile wallet functionality, without the need to rely on the bitcoin blockchain’s distributed network of miners.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is also a member bank of the R3 blockchain consortium that seeks to design and deliver advanced distributed/shared ledger technologies to global financial markets.

MUFJ’s project is not the first instance of an effort in this direction. Last year, IBTimes UK reported that Citigroup developed an equivalent to bitcoin called 'Citicoin'.

Also, recently the National Bank of Ukraine’s press service stated on its Facebook page that the bank is considering granting non-banking financial institutions the right to issue “electronic money”.