A growing number of governments and central banks around the world are looking to the possibility of issuing their own digital coins these days. The latest financial institution to join this trend is the Caribbean central bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten.
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Crypto Guilder
Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten (CBCS), the central bank for the Netherlands Antillean guilder, is set to explore the feasibility of issuing a digital guilder to facilitate financial payments within the monetary union of Curaçao and Sint Maarten. For this purpose, the bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Barbados-based Bitt Inc., a crypto company which is part of the portfolio of Overstock.com’s Medici Ventures.
“The MOU clears the way for collaboration and information sharing regarding a feasibility study, designed to determine the viability and functionality of using a central bank-issued digital guilder within the financial ecosystems of each member, and across both members of the monetary union,” explained Rawdon Adams, CEO of Bitt.
Cashless Society
Governments and central banks who previously expressed interest in creating an altcoin of their own listed several types of reasons for the possibility. Countries with restricted access to the global financial markets, such as Venezuela, Iran, and Russia see cryptocurrencies as a way to bypass economic sanctions. In contrast, more well-connected institutions see digital coins as a way to increase supervision on transactions in their domain by eliminating fiat cash. The latter appears to be the reason in this case.
Mrs. Leila Matroos-Lasten, acting President of the CBCS, said: “The central bank is determined to address its challenges proactively by exploring the latest technology available, for example, to reduce the level of cash usage within the monetary union, and to facilitate more secure, more AML and KYC compliant, and more efficient financial transactions within and between Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The CBCS herewith recognizes the transformative potential of innovation and technology and is committed to exploring solutions regarding the efficiency of cross-jurisdictional transactions and digital payments whilst ensuring compliance and security assurances obtained by these state of the art (fintech) solutions. This would be beneficial to everyone.”
Should small island jurisdictions issue their own coins or just adopt a universal cryptocurrency like Bitcoin? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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