Concluded · Digital money · Hong Kong, 2022
Programmable e-HKD
Money that can read a condition, not just move value.
condition → transaction → reward
- What it was
- A live pilot testing whether e-HKD, Hong Kong's hypothetical retail central bank digital currency, could carry executable conditions, not just move value.
- Why it mattered
- Once money can execute a condition, the design of payment itself starts to shape eligibility, reward and behaviour, not just process a transaction.
- My role
- Product Lead.
- Year, duration, place
- 2022, pilot, Hong Kong (HKUST campus).
- Status
- Concluded.
- Strongest proof point
- 148 participants across 5 campus merchants, a live customer and merchant experience, documented in HSBC's e-HKD Phase 1 pilot factsheet.
Money that can read a condition, not just move value
Most payment pilots test whether money moves faster. This one tested something else: once money can execute a condition, encoded eligibility, timing, reward, does the design of payment itself start to shape behaviour rather than just process it. With HSBC and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, I put a hypothetical e-HKD payment experience into the hands of 148 participants across five campus merchants. As Product Lead, I owned the product definition, the reward and settlement logic, where programmability applied within each merchant scenario, and the customer and merchant journey that carried it. Once money can execute conditions, payment design begins to shape eligibility, reward and behaviour, and that is the question the pilot was built to make real rather than argue in the abstract.
Start from what the technology does, not the problem you already have
My approach was to understand what DLT-based programmability could actually do before looking for a use for it: instant settlement, conditions attached at the point of transaction, rules that execute without a person checking them by hand. Only then did I match it against real merchant scenarios drawn from daily life on campus, where a reward or a condition would actually need to trigger. That match is where the scenarios came from: rewards that release themselves when a condition is met, settlement that clears without a manual step behind it.
What I designed, and what happened after the pilot
I designed the specific reward and settlement logic each merchant scenario ran on, the customer and merchant journey end to end, and the on-screen representation of programmable money itself, using generative design methods to make an abstract condition, a rule attached to value, visible and legible on screen. I also owned the communication materials and narrative that explained the pilot to participants and stakeholders, and go-to-market support alongside HSBC and HKUST's cross-functional team spanning engineering, legal, risk, regulatory reporting and partnerships. After live testing ended, I carried the work through to how the research was written up. The pilot closed at 148 participants across five campus merchants, documented in HSBC's e-HKD Phase 1 pilot factsheet, concluded as a bounded engagement, not a scaled rollout.