Marshall Islands Announced to Launch it’s National Cryptocurrency
An official of Marshall Islands has published a post explaining that the country is planning to launch its national Cryptocurrency in 2020. The post was disclosed in Asia 2019 conference.
The issuance of Marshallese sovereign (SOV) was discussed in the post by The Honorable David Paul — Minister In-Assistance to the President and Environment of the Marshall Islands.
Marshall Islands had passed a Sovereign Currency Act in 2018, that shows its intent to launch its own national Cryptocurrency. Marshall Islands got independent in 1979 but still they are using the US dollar for all official payment,debts, taxes and dues.
In the post Minister Paul explains that the Marshall Islands choice to issue a second legal tender based on blockchain technology was based on conviction that centerlized currency will not work in a country as small as 50,000 people and seperated across 1,000 Islands.
Not only decentralisation blockchain technology offers the country the possibility of having compliance “baked into the currency protocol itself,” — in the original post words — “while maintaining privacy for individuals.”
He further added that the blockchain technology allows the country to automate as much of their compliance obligation, lowering the cost of existing systems. This also helps to take more proactive role in the global fight against money laundering and financing of terrorism.
Any approved agency, banks or exchanges will do verification of all SOV users to avoid any anonymity loopholes. The ministry writes in the post, the country first aim is to protect financial privacy as much as possible. The post explaining:
“It is crucial that individual users should have a reasonable expectation of privacy – specifically, the ability to choose when to disclose your information, what exactly to share, and with whom.”
Government Treat Money as Limited Resource
Minister Paul outlines that SOV currency has a limited tamper proof supply and it’s growth is predetermined to 4% per year. He further added:
“We chose to create a fixed money supply with fixed growth because fiat currencies can be remarkably unstable. […] The policies of major central banks are not reassuring, as the gold and bitcoin prices attest. We as governments need to take a more sustainable approach to money, and not treat it as a limitless resource.”
At the end the post explains that fiat remittance services are currently very expensive for citizens, pointing that frictionless blockchain system will help it to overcome.
Bitcoinik reported that the Central Bank of China will also launch its own Cryptocurrency named Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). The CBDC is in its final stages of testing and will roll out for public soon.
