Seems that e-krona is happening :D (and a list of other national currencies around the world)
Sweden's central bank is set to sign a deal with Accenture to develop a digital currency, dubbed the e-krona, in a test environment.
We heard that so many times already. To date, countries that have issued their own cryptocurrencies include Dubai, Ecuador, China, Senegal, Singapore, Tunisia, Venezuela, though these countries will not be standing alone for long with Estonia, Japan, Palestine, Russia and Sweden (which that article is about) looking to launch their own national cryptocurrencies.
In Sweden however, it can actually works fine. With cash usage dwindling in Sweden, the Riksbank started a project in the spring of 2017 to examine the scope for the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that could ensure that the general public will still have access to a state-guaranteed means of payment.
The bank now says it is ready to sign on with Accenture on a year-long pilot project that will see the development of a technical platform with a user interface that enables e-krona payments from cards, mobile phones and wearables.
The partnership is for an initial run to 31 December 2020 but could last for seven years if the Riksbank decides to go further with the plan and pilot new functions. The bank stresses it has not yet decided whether it will actually issue the e-krona.
Details about other countries can be found on Coinsutra or below:
1. Dubai (UAE)
Cryptocurrency Name: Emcash
Dubai launched the world’s first state-backed cryptocurrency in 2017 known as Emcash. Emcash tokens run on their own native blockchain and can be used for various government and non-government services, such as daily coffee, children’s school fee, utility charges, and money transfers. With this step, Dubai is all set to become the world’s first blockchain-powered government by 2020.
2. Venezuela
Cryptocurrency Name: Petro
Venezuela is the second country to launch its own national cryptocurrency named Petro. Petro was launched in February 2018 after its announcement in December 2017. It is claimed to be backed by the country’s oil and mineral reserves and is intended to supplement Venezuela’s plummeting Venezuelan Bolívar currency. The Venezuelan government also intends to use the national cryptocurrency as a means of circumventing US sanctions and accessing international financing.
3. Estonia
Cryptocurrency Name: Estcoin
Estonia, a country in Northern Europe which is very welcoming of cryptocurrencies in general, had announced in August 2017 about its plans of launching a state-backed cryptocurrency on Ethereum. But it has not been launched yet and remains a proposed cryptocurrency under the name ‘Estcoin’ which will be launched via an ICO or token sale.
Vitalik Buterin was quite supportive of this idea and said,
“An ICO within the e-residency ecosystem would create a strong incentive alignment between e-residents and this fund, and beyond the economic aspect makes the e-residents feel like more of a community since there are more things they can do together”
4. Russia
Cryptocurrency Name: Crypytoruble
Recently, Russia has been particularly interested in launching its own cryptocurrency to circumvent the US sanctions. Moreover, when the interest comes directly from their President Vladimir Putin, you should take it seriously, because in October 2017 Putin ordered the creation of Russia’s national cryptocurrency largely referred to as the Cryptoruble.
However, on the contrary, the Russian Central bank hasn’t shown much interest in launching the Cryptoruble yet.
5. Sweden
Cryptocurrency Name: E-Krona
Meanwhile, another European nation Sweden is contemplating its state-backed cryptocurrency and it looks like they are very close to their launch date.
The new Swedish cryptocurrency will be known as E-Krona through which Sweden aims to go totally cashless. Therefore, Sweden’s central bank, Riksbank, wants to launch an equivalent digital form of cash and will launch it in 2018 through the IOTA blockchain.
IOTA is popular cryptocurrency in the open-source decentralized market that works on ‘Tangle’, a directed acyclic graph based data structure which has no blocks, no chain, and no miners.
6. Japan
Cryptocurrency Name: J-Coin
Japan, one of the most welcoming countries for cryptocurrencies in the Asian region has also been contemplating its government-backed cryptocurrency since 2017.
What they call J-Coin, is expected to be launched ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. J-Coin will supplement Yen (JPY) and will be pegged to JPY in 1: 1 fashion through which citizens will be able to buy goods and services.
There are many other countries, developed and developing, that are thinking in this direction. That is because the digital government backed cryptocurrencies can help them evade sanctions, ease accounting and reduce the cost for the nations. On the downside, it will also help inflate the national currency virtually with no cost through nation-backed cryptocurrencies, which can be a little problem in the long run.
Some more countries are:
India
China
US
UK
Ecuador
Canada
Israel