- The Republic of the Marshall Islands has announced a development fund for their national token
- Their minister of assistance to the president has stated that the token will be self-funded
- The IMF has warned the country about developing a national token
One very interesting concept in cryptocurrency is the creation and implementation of national currencies. Because most cryptos are created by private firms and the industry as a whole is still struggling to gain acceptance from world governments, the creation of an official cryptocurrency for a nation is always newsworthy as was in the case of the petro, which is the national currency of Venezuela.
It seems the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) will be in the news in the coming months as it was announced via a press release on June 4, 2019, that the country has founded a non-profit organization whose purpose is to support the implementation of their national digital currency.
Pushing Forward
As per the press release, the RMI has established the SOV development fund which is a not-for-profit organization and whose main focus is to support the government in the establishment, maintenance, and implementation of the SOV, which will be the island’s digital currency.
There was also the publishing of a pre-recorded video which was presented to the Blockchain for Impact Summit at the United Nations in New York and was delivered by David Paul, the minister in assistance to the president. The video went on to explain a bit about the upcoming currency and also gave assurance that it will not be a burden to the country.
“We are designing SOV in a way that will not place any burden on the government’s finances. The currency funds itself,” Paul said.
The fund to support the currency will be a fully independent one and will also have a board consisting of seven directors with two to be appointed by the government and two to be nominated by SFB technologies, which will be developing the infrastructure behind the token. The other three directors will be appointed by the previous four from international experts on blockchain technology and monetary policy.
There was also some information given by Peter Dittus, who is the chief economist for SOV, who explained that the fund plans to seed the ecosystem around SOV and also to combat volatility by buying and selling the token against the US dollar.
The move to develop the SOV has met some criticism from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last year who warned the country against adopting a cryptocurrency and instead urged them to abandon the project.
