Bank of Tokyo to soon launch its own digital currency MUFG

Rage Review : In October last year, Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ had already joined the blockchain alliance led by R3 CEV. Therefore, as a part of UFJ, the Bank of Tokyo is planning to launch its own digital currency this time, which should be a bold attempt. Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank, Ltd. is a Japanese bank formed by the merger of Tokyo Mitsubishi Bank and UFJ Bank on January 1, 2006. It is the core enterprise and commercial banking business unit of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, the financial group with the largest assets in Japan. In terms of assets, the bank was once the largest bank in the world. However, since it has been clearly stated that the digital currency issued is not simply equivalent to the Japanese yen, it is quite curious what form it will take, so let us wait and see.

Translation: Prince Gong

The Bitcoin protocol and its underlying blockchain technology have unexpectedly become an unexpected gift to the traditional financial industry. Digital currencies may change global financial services, whether for banks or the existing infrastructure provided by governments. It may only be a matter of time before banks decide to delve deeper into the technology and eventually issue their own digital currencies. Tokyo Bank-Mitsubishi UFJ is preparing to issue their own digital currency.

Demonstrating the benefits of digital currency and blockchain

Those who have been active in the Bitcoin and digital currency community for a long time have always known the advantages brought by this new financial technology. Not only can digital currency solutions reduce costs for existing financial participants, it will also help build a financial system that can greatly speed up the completion of transactions.

One of the big disadvantages of traditional finance is that it takes a long time to transfer money between people. Bank-to-bank transfers, the most common way to transfer funds, can take one to five business days, which is completely unacceptable in this era. At the same time, high fees are required throughout the process, especially when making international transfers.

Banks have been struggling to find a solution, trying to find a convenient way to solve these two problems. So, they finally turned their attention to digital currency. From the beginning, the technology can miraculously help reduce costs, provide instant transactions, and work on a global scale.

Despite the optimism, traditional financial players have been against digital currencies over the years. Of course, in the early days of Bitcoin, there were many doubts about whether the technology would really take off. As time went on, their interest in the technology continued to grow, and financial institutions did not want to be left behind.

Fast forward to today, and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ is looking to issue its own digital currency. The main reason is the opportunity to significantly reduce costs, thereby changing the way financial transactions are collectively managed. Distributed ledger technology will make the entire process smoother in the long run, and banks will ultimately benefit from it.

Completed MUFG Coin prototype

Since the Bank of Tokyo is part of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, the name of their new digital currency will be MUFG Coin. The development of the concept and related prototypes have been going on since 2015, and a working demo will be launched soon.

By creating MUFG Coin, the Bank of Tokyo has invested a lot of money in research and development of digital currencies. However, existing financial players need to embrace this new innovative technology at the right time. Ultimately, this investment will pay off by reducing costs through the deployment of distributed ledger technology.

Regarding MUFG, no further details have been announced at this time, and it is unclear whether there is an upper limit on the total amount of this digital currency. However, based on the information currently disclosed, it should not be similar to a digital currency that simply represents the Japanese yen, but should be something completely different.