Standards/digital-kina
Digital Kina
Overview
Note on classification. This entry was originally bucketed as a QR standard, but digital kina is not a QR-symbol standard — it is a CBDC pilot. Reclassified as
CBDC. The wiki shows no playground because there is no QR payload to encode; the slug is retained to avoid breaking incoming links.
Digital Kina is Bank of Papua New Guinea's (BPNG) retail Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) — structurally distinctive as the first CBDC globally to be built on the open-source Hyperledger Iroha 2 blockchain [2, 3, [pg-cro]]. The pilot was conducted by Bank of PNG in cooperation with Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Japan-based fintech Soramitsu — the same Japanese partner that built bakong for the National Bank of Cambodia on Hyperledger Iroha 1. The proof-of-concept went live with select stores and cafes in Port Moresby + a small number of users at end of 2024. Following successful initial deployment, the pilot expanded ahead of full Digital Kina rollout.
The structural significance: PNG joins a small set of countries deploying retail-CBDCs (sand-dollar BS, jam-dex-qr JM, dcash ECCU-discontinued, chivo-qr SV-planned-shutdown, eNaira NG, e-CNY CN-pilot) with the first Hyperledger Iroha 2 deployment. To use Digital Kina, participants download a mobile app + scan a merchant's QR code to make payment. This is structurally similar to Bakong's mobile-app + QR design. The Cambodia-Japan-PNG-Soramitsu axis represents one of the world's most-active central-bank-DLT-payment-infrastructure clusters.
History
Background — PNG payment landscape PG:
- Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) — central bank.
- Kina Bank, BSP Financial Group, ANZ PNG, Westpac PNG as major commercial banks.
- Kina Pei (Kina Bank's digital wallet) — earlier digital-payment innovation.
Digital Kina pilot announced [3]:
- Bank of PNG + Japan METI + Soramitsu partnership.
- Hyperledger Iroha 2 blockchain selected.
End of 2024 — Pilot proof-of-concept goes live [2]:
- Select Port Moresby stores + cafes.
- Small number of users.
Pilot expansion [3]:
- Following successful initial deployment.
- Larger user base + merchant network.
Full rollout planned [2]:
- After successful pilot expansion.
Technical specification
Digital Kina is BPNG's Soramitsu-built Hyperledger-Iroha-2 retail CBDC [2, 3]:
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Issuer | Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) |
| Technology partner | Soramitsu (Japanese blockchain firm) |
| Government partner | Japan METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) |
| Underlying blockchain | Hyperledger Iroha 2 (first deployment globally) |
| Currency | PGK (PNG kina) |
| App interface | Mobile app + QR-code scanning |
| Pilot launch | End of 2024 |
| Pilot location | Port Moresby (select stores + cafes) |
| Status | Pilot expansion → planned full rollout |
Hyperledger Iroha 2 distinction [2]:
- First CBDC globally on this version.
- Successor to Iroha 1 used by Cambodia's bakong.
- Open-source permissioned DLT.
Japan METI partnership [3]:
- Japan-Pacific development cooperation context.
- Soramitsu as Japanese technology partner.
Use cases
Retail merchant payments (Port Moresby pilot) [2]: Select stores + cafes.
P2P transfers (future) [3]: Planned full-rollout feature.
Financial inclusion PG: PNG has significant unbanked population.
Cross-border within Pacific (potential) PG: Pacific-region CBDC interop potential.
Implementations & ecosystem
Issuer: Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG).
Technology partner: Soramitsu (Japan).
Government partner: Japan METI.
Major PNG commercial banks: BSP Financial Group, Kina Bank, ANZ PNG, Westpac PNG.
Companion: Kina Bank's Kina Pei + Pei Beta digital-wallet products (commercial bank-led, distinct from CBDC).
Fun facts
- First Hyperledger Iroha 2 CBDC deployment globally: PNG pioneers the newer DLT version. Cambodia's bakong used Iroha 1.
- Cambodia-Japan-PNG-Soramitsu axis: Soramitsu's expanding Pacific + Southeast Asian central-bank-DLT-payment footprint.
- Japan METI involvement: Japan-Pacific development cooperation; METI promotes Japanese fintech globally.
- Port Moresby pilot end 2024: Start of PNG CBDC adoption phase.
- PNG's small + diverse population: ~9.5M across many islands; CBDC potentially valuable for cross-island payment.
- Pacific CBDC context: Joins emerging Pacific CBDC space alongside discussions in other Pacific Island Forum nations.
- NOT a discontinued case (yet): Active pilot expansion phase; distinguishes from DCash + Chivo trajectory.
- Bank-led + central-bank dual-product context: BPNG Digital Kina (CBDC) + Kina Bank Kina Pei (commercial-bank digital wallet) coexisting.
Comparison
| Feature | Digital Kina (PG) | bakong (KH) | sand-dollar (BS) | dcash (ECCU, discontinued) | chivo-qr (SV, planned-shutdown) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issuer | BPNG | NBC | Central Bank of Bahamas | ECCB | Salvadoran government |
| Tech | Hyperledger Iroha 2 | Hyperledger Iroha 1 (Soramitsu) | NZIA | Bitt | Custom + Lightning |
| Launch | End 2024 pilot | Oct 2020 | Oct 2020 | Mar 2021 → Jan 2024 shutdown | Sep 2021 → planned shutdown |
| CBDC-clarity | Retail CBDC | NOT a CBDC per NBC | Retail CBDC | Retail CBDC | Bitcoin-state-wallet |
| Status | Pilot expansion | Active (608M txns 2024) | Active (low adoption) | Discontinued | Planned shutdown |
Status
Active pilot, expanding [2, 3]:
- BPNG issuer + Soramitsu Hyperledger Iroha 2 tech.
- Japan METI partner.
- End-2024 Port Moresby pilot live.
- Expansion phase pre-full-rollout.
Sources
- 1 Bank of Papua New Guinea
- 2 PNG pilots CBDC — NFC World
- 3 Digital Kina pilot completed — Fintech Frontiers
- [pg-cro]
reports/countries/PG-papua-new-guinea.md
Deployments
Found in the following country reports (grep across reports/countries/):