Is Sweden going to launch its own digital currency the e-krona in partnership with IOTA?

Over the last few months there has been much speculation in the financial media that Sweden will launch its own digital currency the e-krona. This speculation has gained momentum leading the crypto news site ambcrypto.com to put out a report with the headline:

“Unconfirmed reports suggest Sweden to launch its own cryptocurrency along with IOTA [MIOTA] – e-krona’’.

The article goes on to claim:

“The project leader of the e-krona, Eva Julin said that the central bank finalized IOTA for the project after negotiations with 19 companies.’’

Further support for this claim is provided in the shape of a quote from IOTA’s twitter feed:

“#Sweden may be among the first countries to implement a national #cryptocurrencywith #IOTA. But before the Nordic nation goes full cashless the riksbank stressed several issues that a national #cryptocurrency would have to address!’’.

I read this article with some interest and thought: well if this is true then this is huge news and represents a massive break through for crypto. It could be a game changer as far as giving cryptocurrencies the legitimacy and momentum needed to gain mass adoption in the West.

My next thought was let’s check the IOTA twitter feed to corroborate the story.

Well guess what I found. On the 31 March there was tweet about John D.Licciardello presenting the IOTA Ecosystem Development Fund at Slush Tokyo 2018. There was no mention of the Swedish e-krona working in partnership with IOTA. I then looked through the whole of March and came up with nothing. So then I went to the IOTA Foundation website to verify the accuracy of the ambcrypto report.

On the IOTA Foundation’s website I found an article that ran with the headline:

“E-Krona and IOTA – Perhaps The Most Important Cryptocurrency Of All Time’’.

According to the IOTA Foundation article Sweden’s central bank the Riksbank has launched a competition for private companies to provide the technical infrastructure for the e-krona. The article goes on to claim that 40 companies applied and that after the first elimination only 19 are left. Amongst this 19 companies are IOTA and Stellar.

The article even included a quote from Stefan Ignaves governor of the Swedish central bank to give the whole story extra legitimacy.

This story suggesting IOTA was in the running to be adopted by Sweden for its e-krona digital currency was a translation of an article from an Austrian website der brutkasten that claims to be a start up and innovation platform. I went to the story on der brutkasten and translated the article and it tallied up with the translation on the IOTA Foundation website.

Then I thought: this is such a big story then I ought to confirm it before writing about it for Steemit.

Next up was a search of the Swedish central bank’s website – Sveriges Riksbank.

Within seconds I found a post on there dated 16/3/2018 with the headline “False Information concerning the sale of e-krona's’’. Apparently, stories are appearing on various social media sites claiming that Sweden has set up a digital currency (e-krona) and that its central bank is selling e-krona's. The story categorically stated that this was bullshit and invented by scamsters:

“The Riksbank has also been contacted by individuals describing how they have been called by companies claiming to be selling e-krona's on behalf of the Riksbank’’.

The article then nails the lies told by ambcrypto which were partially supported by the story on the IOTA Foundation site.

“In 2017, the Riksbank started a project aimed at examining whether the krona needs to be issued in an electronic form, an ‘e-krona’. The project has not been concluded and no decision has been taken on issuing e-krona's’’.

A cursory examination of the Riksbank website notes that it has set up a project to examine whether Sweden needs a digital currency and how it would work. On 2/1/2018 there was a post stating:

“The Riksbank has therefore started a project aimed at examining whether the krona needs to be issued in an electronic form, an "e-krona". No decision has yet been taken to issue an e-krona – there have been claims on the internet about this that are incorrect’’.

The article reinforces this point point further to make sure that people could be under no illusions about the situation regarding Sweden setting up a digital currency:

“The project that has been started aims to investigate the legal and technical conditions for the Riksbank to be able to issue an e-krona. It will also entail integrity issues and how an e-krona could be made available to the general public. The inquiry is expected to be finalised in late 2019. In other words, it has not yet been decided whether the Riksbank will issue an e-krona’’.

The 2018 action plan for the e-krona project notes that the reasons for discussing the merits of state issued digital currency are twofold:

Firstly, there is the steady decline in the use of cash in Sweden which is a long term trend.

Secondly, the central banks main objective is to ensure price stability and promoting a safe/stable environment for the wider economy. In other words it wants to future proof Sweden’s economy so that it is robust enough to withstand conditions of ‘financial unease’ such as turmoil in the world economy arising from the next economic recession.

The action plan informs us that the e-krona project is entering stage two during 2018. It hopes to issue an interim report in October 2018 whereby the Executive Board of the Riksbank will make a decision on whether to adopt the e-krona in principle. This would facilitate the project moving to stage 3 involving the implementation of a digital currency.

“The objective of the project is to draw up a proposal for a concrete concept for an e-krona to enable the Executive Board to make a decision on whether or not to issue an e-krona, if they so wish’’.

Does this mean that talk of Sweden adopting a crypto blockchain to support the e-krona is all hot air and mindless speculation? Maybe not.

Apparently, during stage 2 important collaboration partners and other central banks working on similar projects will be consulted. During this sub-project that there will be ‘extensive dialogues’ with ‘financial companies’ and ‘payment service providers’. I believe that is during this sub-project that certain cryptocurrencies may be consulted about how they could support the development of the e-krona.

It is worth noting the parameters of the sub-project work.

“The bases for the sub-project work in 2018 shall be:

• The e-krona is not intended to replace cash or other payment solutions, but is meant to function as a complement.
  *The e-krona aims to safeguard the general public’s access to central bank money in a situation where cash is no longer regarded as generally accepted.

• An e-krona would function as a means of payment and like cash can be used as a means of saving.
  *An e-krona is intended for payments between consumers, companies and authorities. It is not intended for large payments that go through RIX4 and nor is it primarily a monetary policy instrument.
  *An e-krona shall be a direct claim on the Riksbank, specified in Swedish kronor and can be held by financial institutions, companies, public authorities and members of the general public.

• The Riksbank will supply accounts for e-krona.

• The e-krona shall be electronically accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year in real time.

• The supply of e-krona shall be determined by demand for them.

• An e-krona shall enable off-line payments of small amounts.

• The e-krona will not carry interest, but should have an inbuilt function that technically enables interest.

• The Riksbank will be responsible for the issue, redemption and settlement of the e-krona. The interaction with users of the e-krona will be entirely or partly through private or public sector agents with authorisation to mediate payments.

• A proposal will be presented whereby the e-krona can have a function that under certain circumstances, in accordance with the anti-money laundering regulations, allows partly anonymous payments.

• The technical solution produced for an e-krona must be flexible so that the solutions can be adapted to new technology developed over time. It must also be possible to amend its functions and characteristics over time.

• The economic effects of an e-krona in the medium and long term shall be analysed’’.

This is a story that is worth following. Maybe Sweden will become the first Western country to issue its own digital currency. Maybe it will do this in collaboration with a crypto such as IOTA. Time will tell. The implications of Sweden taking such a path will be considerable.

Moral of the story
The moral of this humble missive is DOUBT EVERYTHING you read or listen to and THINK FOR YOURSELF. Maybe my story is BS and not to be trusted. The only way you will know for sure if Sweden’s central bank is working with IOTA is to do your own research.
Sermon over.

Sources:

https://ambcrypto.com/sweden-to-launch-its-own-cryptocurrency-along-with-iota-miota-e-krona/

https://twitter.com/iotatoken?lang=en

https://iota-news.com/e-krona-iota-perhaps-the-most-important-cryptocurrency-of-all-time/

https://www.derbrutkasten.com/e-krona-die-vielleicht-wichtigste-kryptowaehrung-aller-zeiten/

https://www.riksbank.se/en-gb/press-and-published/notices-and-press-releases/notices/2018/false-information-concerning-the-sale-of-e-kronas/

https://www.riksbank.se/globalassets/media/rapporter/e-krona/2017/handlingsplan_ekrona_171221_eng.pdf

https://www.riksbank.se/en-gb/financial-stability/the-financial-system/payments/does-sweden-need-an-e-krona/the-e-krona-projects-first-interim-report/