China's Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) – a permissioned blockchain network for building decentralized applications and tokens – plans on releasing a beta central bank digital currency (CBDC) as early as the second half of 2021, according to a Jan. 15 blog post.

The Chinese-state-sanctioned BSN is currently designing a universal digital payment network (UDPN) over the next half-decade. CBDCs from different nations will be supported by the network, the blog claims.

The UDPN network will be available through API connection as well for "any information system such as banking, insurance, ERP, and mobile applications … to enable a standardized digital currency transfer method and payment procedure."

The network is currently in the design stage, although public city nodes (PCN) are being rolled out through China in various states of completion, the blog states.

As CoinDesk reported, the BSN recently incorporated connections to multiple public projects into its network such as the cloud-computing project Oasis, meta-protocol Polkadot and China-based public blockchain Bityuan.

The BSN further expects to complete integrations with a total of 30 public blockchains this year, the blog concludes.