Tiny Pacific Nation Makes a Go of Its Own Digital Currency
Tiny Pacific Nation
Makes a Go of Its Own Digital Currency
Joanna Ossinger September 12, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- An
isolated island nation in the Pacific Ocean with a population of about 75,000
continues to break ground in the cryptocurrency space.
The Marshall Islands
is proceeding with the creation of a blockchain-based national currency, the
Marshallese sovereign or SOV, the country said in a statement. David Paul, the
environment minister and minister-in-assistance to the president of the
Republic of the Marshall Islands, spoke about the venture at a conference in
Singapore on Wednesday.
“With the blockchain
technology in place, we thought this was an opportune time to establish our own
legal tender” and lessen the nation’s dependence on the dollar, Paul said in an
interview from the sidelines of the conference. “As a small country it’s going
to be easier and faster for us to make decisions and respond to the market” as
a digital coin is introduced.
The country doesn’t
have a starting date set yet, as officials still need to resolve compliance and
regulatory issues, and work with entities like the U.S. Treasury and the
International Monetary Fund, Paul said. In a February 2018 interview, he had
told Bloomberg News plans were to issue the coin later that year.
The SOV has built-in
compliance features and its supply will grow at a fixed rate of 4% a year,
according to the statement, which added that only verified users will be able
to transact in SOV. Newly created SOV will be sent automatically to eligible
holders, including all Marshallese citizens, who will also receive an equal
split of 10% of the initial currency supply, the statement said. The SOV won’t
be one-to-one to the greenback -- it will establish its own liquidity and be
market-based, Paul said in the interview.
The announcement comes
as the idea of digital currencies begins to gain traction. Facebook Inc. in
June announced plans for a digital coin called
Libra. The People’s Bank of China is “close” to releasing a
cryptocurrency of its own, a senior official said recently. Even Mark Carney,
the Bank of England governor, floated the idea last month of a Libra-like virtual global
reserve currency.
The roots of the
Marshall Islands’ effort started after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001,
Paul said, when the financial regulatory regime changed significantly and
requirements to perform transactions become much more stringent.
“Right now we have
only one relationship with one correspondent bank, and if that’s lost we would
be cut off,” Paul said, identifying First Hawaiian Inc. as that bank. “A
correspondent banking relationship is commercial, and a nation being held
hostage by a commercial relationship shouldn’t be the case.”
The greenback won’t
completely go away, at least not for the time being. People will still have the
choice to use the U.S. dollar as well as the SOV, Paul said.
“We’re committed to do
it the right way,” he said. “As long as we do it in a responsible manner it’s
going to withstand the test of time.”
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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