First Country To Issue A National Cryptocurrency (Functioning As A Legal Tender) Is Marshal Islands
By Stefan Lins from Tokyo, Japan - Laura beach n' tree, CC BY 2.0, Link
It had to happen, eventually.
After months of dabbling in and out, after hesitations and half-formulated statements about crypto and "bubbles", finally one country is getting in full throttle. It's a small country in the Pacific, with a little over 57,000 inhabitants, called Marshal Islands. It's been known as a nuclear test playground for US between 1946-1958, which is probably why USA is still providing a $60 million / year financial help. Given the country's total budget is about $100 million it's relatively easy to spot the biggest ally of Marshal Islands.
This financial aid is set to halve, though, in 2023, leaving Marshal Islands only 5 years to do whatever they have to in order to balance their budget in anticipation of this move.
But lets' back to the crypto stuff.
The currency, named "Sovereign" (another hint at what this currency may do to the country, which, theoretically, is a sovereign nation) will be issued via an ICO and it will have the symbol SOV. Not yet know which blockchain it will be issued on, all we know is that an Israeli Y-combinator fintech startup will help with the technical part.
The most interesting part of the announcement is a small comparison table, between SOV and PTR (the symbol of the "Petro" crypto issued by Venezuela). I'll leave you the pleasure to look over it, here's the link.
Although the country is small, it's still very much dependent of the US, it's quite remote and its economy is not quite strong, this news is absolutely astonishing. For the first time in history, a country will issue their national currency on blockchain, via an ICO, and that currency will be legal tender and its price established by the market.
We're literally living ahead of the future now.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
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Great News! True, Cryptocurrencies have the potential to change the lives of some of the world’s poorest and most desperate people for the better. It can improve lives by helping residents of developing countries participate in the global economy and escape from poverty. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies can also bring respite to Africa’s and Asia's inflation problem...
why ? how ?
I mean, yes the potential is there, but through collaboration not by creating a new, meaningless crypto currency that holds no value.
I know it's supposed to be good news, but I am really skeptic about this. I don't even understand why they would need a "new currency" at all, what's their motivation for doing so ?
It just seems to me like a raise of funds rather than a new crypto currency, more likely to be abused than helpful.
Fully Decentralized ? feels like everyone decides what decentralization means to them ...
For me is like Vaslui or Delta Dunarii would decide to issue their own currency, which is not a bad idea, in particular for preserving life in Delta where there can be some green energy incentives as well.
If this is issued by a government doesn't that make it's just another Fiat currency but on a block chain?
I thought the whole point of crypto was that it is decentralised. Does issuing it on the block chain make it so?
As soon as a government is involved doesn't that mean it's centralised?
If the government keeps its promises and doesn't print more than it is set in the genesis block, then it's ok.
that statement alone gives me the chill, how is that decentralization ?
I think we should calibrate our expectations a bit. Blockchains, even permission-based ones (or centralized) have a lot of advantages over the current ways of value exchange (cash, banks). Security, transparency, speed, ease of use, etc.
Just because a process is based on a peer to peer cryptographic ledger doesn't immediately and immutably means it's a completely decentralized one.
Even the ecosystems touted as being fully decentralized are actually very "colluded". A very small percentage of miners is controlling the entire Bitcoin mining process, as you know it very well.
All in all, this is a social advancement powered by the blockchain, and I still think it's a very important step forward.
I guess in a sense I am biased by my current understanding of the block-chains globally.
All in all it is an improvement for these civilians, it is the statement from The difference between SOV and PTR where they claim it's fully decentralized that pisses me off.
We have to look code more closely. May be the only possibility to increase coins in circulation will be a fork and in my opinion this is transparent way to do this because original coin and forked one will be valued by the markets separately.
I not easy to believe that such a small economy took this bold step....May be some big players/countries behind the curtain....
May be The Marshal Islands is still a testing ground for larger economies...
To be honest, I thought about that too :)
Yeah it seems obvious and plausible....
When can we see some recovery already that period is yet to come for us all
Hopefully they manage it better than what the Venezuelan government has been doing with the petro... This could be a very great move to help them fix their budget and maybe get some people to come and invest on the islands if they pass some crypto friendly laws.
Wow. We're there already. Crypto has taken over. I guess the rest of the world will use Marshal islands as a guide to develop their own crypto economy.
This will help the country stay afloat :)))
Hi @dragosroua, thanks for finding all these gems of information for us. I love the name Sovereign, it echoes back to older times when Gold Sovereigns were currency and currency was made from Gold.
I am not sure if this was their intention, but I like the romantic notion that it was.
I believe this is definitely the start of a trend for smaller more remote nations who do not have easy access to the global financial system.
I know Andreas from Bitcoin and Charles from Cardano believe that the true growth opportunity for cryptocurrency is in nations where their citizens do not have easy access to reliable banking and finance.
The evidence of this is played out with how M-Peza has taken off in Kenya:
Read more about it here on Wikipedia.
If mobile phone minutes can become popular as currency in Kenya, then just imagine the potential of cryptocurrency.
Such an exciting time we live in.
wow...great post i like your post to much thanks for sharing good post @dragosroua