Kima, a peer-to-peer money transfer and payment protocol, facilitated the transfer of a tokenized stock via a digital shekel, demonstrating its cross-ecosystem interoperable delivery-vs-payment (DvP) solution.
Administered by the Bank of Israel as part of a research initiative to potentially adopt a central bank digital currency (CBDC), the successful purchase of a tokenized share through a digital shekel was converted into regular shekels to finalize the process using Kima’s settlement layer.
To demonstrate the utility of its transfer protocol, Kima built an imaginary trading platform called PeerTrade which facilitated an atomic swap of the tokenized share. Kima’s secure decentralized settlement layer orchestrated the transaction instead of an intermediary, directly linking the buyer interested in purchasing the stock using her digital shekels with the seller, who held a tokenized share in their wallet to receive the payment into their bank account in the form of regular shekels.
To facilitate the transaction, Kima utilized two sets of API calls within an exploratory sandbox designed by the Bank of Israel for its digital shekel pilot program:
- Digital shekel lock and release (3-party Lock): The buyer’s funds were locked until the stock was transferred and immediately released to the seller upon completion, protecting both parties throughout the process.
- Digital shekel to regular shekel conversion (Defunding): This process converts the digital shekel payment into a usable form with purchasing power in financial markets.
Throughout the entire process, Kima’s technology ensured the transaction was safe and verified. The process took place instantly, while Kima’s blockchain functioned as a decentralized escrow without any intermediaries or smart contracts, extra fees, delays, or unforeseen occurrences.
Kima’s vast infrastructure includes a Universal Payment Rail (UPR) and Liquidity Cloud. These key technologies connect fiat and digital assets across multiple blockchains, allowing transactions to occur without being tied to a specific currency or payment rate. Kima’s settlement layer is foundational to handling its wide-ranging applications: Cross-border money transfers, hybrid payments, real-world tokenized asset transactions, gaming, e-commerce, and DeFi.
“Today’s financial systems are weighed down by barriers and intermediaries that slow transactions and add unnecessary costs,” said Eitan Katz, CEO of Kima, in a statement. “For the first time, our solution has enabled an unprecedentedly efficient transaction, performing real-time delivery-vs-payment without intermediary escrow or smart contracts. After securely swapping assets, the system seamlessly executed an off-ramp action within the same atomic transaction—marking the first time a decentralized chain has facilitated a transaction that integrates both digital currencies and fiat. This protocol’s flexibility empowers citizens and financial institutions to conduct smooth, cross-asset, and cross-currency transactions without the need for complex conversions or restrictions on asset type.”