Pass-through wallet

Information technology - blockchain - Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).

In the context of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), a pass-through wallet is a proposal for a tool to access CBDC held on the central bank's infrastructure, without holding any CBDC directly itself.

UK digital pound consultation

"The Bank [of England] would provide the digital pound and the central infrastructure, including the ‘core ledger’.

Private sector companies – which could be banks or approved non-bank firms – would be able to integrate into the central digital pound infrastructure and provide the interface between the Bank and users.

They would do this by offering digital ‘pass-through’ wallets to end users.

The wallets could be integrated into their other services.

They are known as ‘pass-through’ wallets... because the user’s holdings of digital pounds are recorded anonymously on the Bank’s core ledger, in order to safeguard their privacy, and the wallet simply passes instructions from the user to the core ledger.

End-users would interact with these wallets rather than directly with the Bank.

Users would interact with digital pounds by using their wallet to see their balance and instruct payments and transfers of digital pounds.

It is likely most people would access the wallet via their smartphone, but there would be alternative options, such as a smart card."

The digital pound: a new form of money for households and businesses? Consultation Paper - Bank of England - February 2023 - pp 11-12.

See also

• Bank
• Bank of England
• Blockchain
• Central bank digital currency (CBDC)
• Crypto wallet
• Cryptoassets
• Digital pound
• Electronic wallet
• Financial services
• Information technology
• Infrastructure
• Ledger
• Money
• Pass-through
• Payment service provider
• Private sector
• Wallet
• Wallet provider

Other resource

The digital pound: a new form of money for households and businesses? Consultation Paper - Bank of England - February 2023