Estonia, one of the first countries interested in creating a national cryptocurrency - the so-called Estcoin - has scaled down its plans following criticism from Mario Draghi and local banking authorities, Bloomberg reported today
Siim Sikkut, an official in charge of the country’s IT strategy, said that the token will only be issued as an incentive to e-residents - foreigners who use Estonia’s electronic identification to remotely sign documents and register firms.
“We agreed in discussions with politicians that Estcoin will proceed as a means for transactions inside the e-resident community,” Sikkut said. “Other options aren’t on the table. We’re not building a new currency.”
Prior to the decision, Estonia was considering three potential models for its state-backed digital currency:
- A public token to stimulate the development of the "digital nation" in Estonia, which would include participants of the e-Residency program.
- A secure government identification system based on the Estcoin, which would be used to sign documents, gain access to various services and work with smart contracts.
- A token pegged to the euro, which would combine the cryptocurrency’s decentralization with the stability of the fiat, but would only be used within the framework of the e-Residency program.
By Ekaterina Ulyanova