Singapore City, SG – Ample FinTech, a Singapore-based FinTech company, revealed its novel programmable money technology PBM3525 today. This technology enables individuals and commercial users to configure and customize payment conditions and logics on blockchains without involving financial intermediaries or programming smart contracts themselves. Ample FinTech stated that it has successfully applied this technology in Project DESFT, a pilot cross-border trade and payment solution supported by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Bank of Ghana. According to the leaders of this startup company, PBM3525 is a general purpose technology to digitalize an array of payment and financial tools such as bills, invoices, letters of credit, commercial papers, swap contracts, and more.
In the global fintech and financial innovation sectors, tokenization and distributed ledger technology (DLT) have become highly discussed topics. Many central banks around the world have launched pilot projects on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), tokenized deposits, stablecoins and DLT to explore the potential of these technologies in the digital economy, especially in cross-board payment, international trade and supply chain finance. Project DESFT is a notable example among these central bank pilot initiatives.
In May 2024, Project DESFT completed its first cross-border payment pilot. The transaction utilized the Singapore dollar stablecoin and Ghana’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), eCedi. The pilot successfully employed PBM3525, an extension of “Purpose-Bound Money” technology, to facilitate the cross-border transaction.
Purpose-Bound Money (PBM) is a new advanced programmable payment technology. Before this innovation, there were two primary models to control and automate payment logics, Programmable Payments and Programmable Money. Purpose-Bound Money (PBM), as the third and latest model, combines the concepts and advantages of the two before it. Compared to these two models, PBM offers both the flexibility of programmable payments and the determinism of programmable money. In this new type of transferable token, programming logic and token value are tightly bound together. Technically, PBM can be seen as wrapping programming rules around digital assets to create a new type of transferable token that includes rules and underlying value tokens. Once conditions are met, PBM will release its underlying assets.
The reference implementation of PBM is based on the ERC-1155 standard, while Ample FinTech adopted the ERC-3525 semi-fungible token standard to create PBM and named it PBM3525, where “3525” indicates the use of this advanced token standard. PBM3525 extends the “Purpose-Bound Money” technology, enabling users to independently combine and create complex payment programming logic with simpler, more composable, and richer visualization features. With these features, PBM3525 is more conducive to commoditize the programmable money technology and its applications in various industries.
David LEE Kuo Chuen, co-founder of Ample FinTech, stated: “PBM3525 is a groundbreaking innovation in the field of programmable finance. The global financial sector is recognizing the significant opportunities that distributed ledger technology (DLT) and smart contracts bring to transforming payments and digital finance. Ample FinTech is honored to collaborate with the public sector on pioneering projects like Project DESFT, and is pleased to have successfully validated concepts and conducted cross-border payments using PBM3525 technology in this project. This achievement is just the beginning. As a versatile and powerful technology, PBM3525 has the potential to revolutionize numerous applications from digital finance to international trade.”
Zhexin Wan, Head of Research at Ample FinTech, is working on the next version of PBM3525, which is about privacy protection and compliance. He added, “PBM3525 represents a breakthrough in how digital payments are conceived and utilized. By integrating digital identity and verifiable credential technologies, PBM3525 can be one of the first DLT-based programmable payment solutions that delivers robust privacy protection and compliance features, which are essential for the real-world applications. We see a great potential, including scenarios such as cross-border payments, international trade, trade finance, contractual agreements, and online commerce, where it can help reduce counterparty risks and costs, and improve efficiency and transparency.”
This innovation marks a milestone on the path to digitizing economies, cross-border payments, and international trade. This technological innovation indicates that in the future, both businesses and individuals can use cutting-edge programmable payment technologies like PBM3525 without needing expensive intermediary services. PBM3525 brings significant efficiency improvements through its atomic settlement feature, addressing pain points in traditional cross-border payments such as long settlement times. It also simplifies international trade procedures and leverages its transparency to reduce compliance costs, bringing higher certainty and credibility to international trade. Ultimately, it enhances global financial inclusivity and opens new opportunities for global economic growth and cooperation.
The successful implementation of PBM3525 demonstrates blockchain technology’s potential to transform the financial industry, promoting the development of a more inclusive and interconnected global economy.
ZheXin Wan (Louis)
Email: service@amplefintech.com
About Ample FinTech: Ample FinTech is a Singapore-based financial technology solution development company that is engaging in multiple explorative digital currency and tokenization initiatives, including Project DESFT, which is supported by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Bank of Ghana.