Existing point-of-sale terminals in the UK could potentially be utilized to initiate digital pound payments, according to research conducted by the Bank of England.
This year, the central bank transitioned from the research and exploration phase of its digital pound roadmap to the design phase. The UK has determined that any future central bank digital currency (CBDC) should be suitable for everyday in-store transactions. As part of this initiative, the Bank of England conducted a feasibility study to assess whether current point-of-sale systems could support such transactions, thus alleviating the need for merchants to invest in new hardware.
The study indicated that existing POS terminals in the UK could, in principle, be adapted to initiate online digital pound payments. Furthermore, researchers concluded that while it is technically feasible to implement offline payment capabilities using the current POS systems, these machines would require modifications. Specifically, the functionality may necessitate the deployment of an offline payments application to store offline balances on the terminals.