# BIS Innovation Hub

> BIS Innovation Hub (Bank for International Settlements): Central bank prototypes that build privacy on purpose. Region: Global. Builds with privacy tech: The regime itself mandates, pilots or funds privacy-preserving technology.

Part of the Soda Labs Privacy Hub regulation map, which reads the instruments
themselves rather than summarising the summaries: https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation

## Key facts

- Entry type: Regulator or standard-setter
- Region: Global
- Subject: Central bank prototypes that build privacy on purpose
- Authority: Bank for International Settlements
- Stance on on-chain confidentiality: Builds with privacy tech. The regime itself mandates, pilots or funds privacy-preserving technology.
- Tags: CBDC privacy, blind signatures, payer anonymity, compliance without pooling
- Canonical page: https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/reg-bis-innovation-hub

## What it actually says

If you want evidence that the institutions writing the rules do not equate confidentiality with crime, this is where to look. Tourbillon concluded that it is feasible to implement a CBDC providing payer anonymity while combating illicit transactions, with the consumer disclosing nothing to the merchant, the banks or the central bank, and compliance handled at the merchant's bank instead. Agorá goes further on the wholesale side, and its finding is the one worth quoting: a shared ledger does not require shared data. Each institution runs its own sanctions and anti-money-laundering screening locally and shares only a binary pass or fail with the group. That is compliance without data pooling, demonstrated by the central banks' own research arm rather than argued by vendors.

## The instruments that matter

- **Project Tourbillon, 29 November 2023**: eCash prototypes giving payer anonymity (no personal information disclosed to merchant, banks or central bank) with quantum-safe blind signatures at a 200x throughput cost
- **Project Agorá, 27 May 2026**: seven central banks and 40+ institutions; a shared ledger does not require shared data, with each institution screening locally and sharing only binary pass or fail outcomes
- **Project Aurum 2.0**: with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, testing pseudonymisation and zero-knowledge proofs for retail CBDC privacy

## Sources

- [Project Tourbillon](https://www.bis.org/publ/othp80.pdf)
- [Project Agorá report](https://www.bis.org/publ/othp110.pdf)

## Related entries

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- [Convention 108+](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/reg-convention-108): The only binding international data protection treaty
- [ISO and IEC standards](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/reg-iso): The standards bodies that specify privacy instead of policing it
- [NIST](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/reg-nist): The vocabulary that makes privacy claims testable
- [Basel Committee, SCO60](https://www.sodalabs.xyz/privacy-hub/regulation/reg-basel-sco60): Bank capital · the sharpest traceability rule anywhere
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