CBDC Innovate 2023 has helped to promote the building of limitless applications for CBDCs. Over 1,200 developers from around the world entered to participate in CBDC Innovate 2023, pitching their unique and novel ideas to improve offline CBDC access, financial inclusion, climate change and many more use cases to a panel of CBDC and fintech leaders.

It was a difficult task for the judges to select 16 distinguished finalists to move forward to CBDC Innovate’s Phase II, where the finalists will begin building, refining, and developing their applications. Out of these 16 finalists, six of the top finalists will receive a prize of $10,000 each, with all finalists being eligible for a grand prize pool of $150,000 to be awarded at the end of CBDC Innovate Phase II.

Top 6 Finalists:

• Universal parametric climate insurance utilizing CBDCs: Climate insurance is out of the reach for the majority of the world's population, particularly those in the Global South, with this application being the most efficient d’app for universal climate insurance using CBDCs.
• AMADAO Gig Pay: Secure P2P escrow cross-border payment app for knowledge workers.
• Power of Access: Financial inclusion through DeFi on the XRP Ledger.
• FLAN: Financial Ledger Applications Network: Using specialized radio-data protocols and the XRP Ledger to facilitate access to financial networks for people in developing nations and to help local entrepreneurs flourish in their own communities.
• ExtoPay: ExtoPay is a digital payment solution that utilizes a modified version of the XRP Ledger in conjunction with low-cost biometric smart card/wearable hardware wallets or mobile App software wallets. ExtoPay enables universal access to CBDCs for both smartphone or non-smartphone users, which in turn enables secure offline transactions, recovery of lost funds, fraud prevention, and user-controlled cryptographically secured digital ID.
• Ripple Mobile: An innovative solution for low-tech markets that improves the accessibility of CBDC by enabling the transfer of XRP from one phone to another without internet access.

Honorable Mentions:

• iBonus Offline Payments for Retail CBDCs: iBonus is developing a novel mobile payment solution that is designed to work “dual-offline” in situations where both digital wallets and POS devices have no access to the Internet.
• Diaspora Bank Project: The Diaspora Bank Project aims to establish a community neo-bank to serve African immigrant communities and expats using a multi-sovereign CBDC approach. The Diaspora Bank Project leverages the XRP Ledger to create a near-0% fee flow of cross-border remittance funds to Africa, while also providing the funds transmitted a unique opportunity to use their saved fees to invest in well-vetted capacity-building projects of their choosing with stable returns.
• Donalia: Donalia has created the unique Donorbox platform, which aims to redefine the landscape of charitable giving by facilitating effortless fund donations while offering an unprecedented level of transparency through the integration of the XRP Ledger, CBDCs, and supply chain capabilities.
• WhisperCash: WhisperCash is an offline payment solution for CBDCs that uses secure hardware and a unique value transfer protocol based on short numeric codes.
• AnChain AI Secure CBDC: AnChain.AI Secure CBDC is a big data analytics platform built for the safe issuance and monitoring of CBDCs, enabling market insights, market surveillance, risk monitoring, and behavioral analytics.
• RippleFusion BPVs CBDC MSB Solution: RippleFusion aims to become the solution that simplifies integrations of Ripple's CBDCs for entities such as small remittance-focused companies.
• Minty: Minty is a real estate transitions platform enabled by the XRP Ledger, helping to simplify and accelerate the real estate transaction process.
• SpendTheBits: SpendTheBits has created a retail CBDC portal that is tailor-made for regional banks & MSBs to easily send cross-border payments, manage corresponding ledgers, and provide their end users a platform for remittance requests.
• PeerHive: PeerHive is a pioneering lending platform that harnesses the power of blockchain and CBDCs to revolutionize SME financing.
• BrightFuture: BrightFuture is a payment & investment solution for low-income groups, helping workers receive salaries in CBDCs, auto-invest money into financial goals, pay bills, and manage expenses using CBDCs.

Creating New Opportunities in the Digital Asset Ecosystem

All six finalists and 10 honorable mentions will be moving on to CBDC Innovate’s Phase II, where they will be competing for three grand prizes worth $100,00, $30,000, and $10,000, respectively. We’re excited to see these ideas develop into robust applications that can help usher CBDC implementations to grow around the world!

The financial ecosystem is constantly evolving, with CBDCs helping to facilitate innovation through a combination of public and private sector initiatives. Ripple is excited to help encourage increasing interest and development within the CBDC space.