I see there have been several rumors and misinformation regarding this digital currency in Ecuador.
As an Ecuadorian, I thought it'd be useful to post some facts:

Ecuador's currency is the US dollar since the year 2000 and that won't change at the moment.

A project to create a new  digital or even crypto currency does not exist.

What will happen in about one month or so is that people in Ecuador (myself included) will be able to create accounts in the Central Bank of Ecuador from our mobile phones.

We'll be able to make payments (i.e. transfers to another account) using our mobile phones only; we'll be able to make deposits on hundreds (thousands?) of points; and we'll be able to withdraw money from the same points, plus all the existing ATMs. Everybody will be able to send and receive payments this way, so we won't need to carry cash anymore.

What's new here is that these accounts are accessible from the mobile phone only, and no Internet connection or smartphone will be required (everything will be via USSD). The idea is to allow everybody to hold an account, even the poorest ones.

Also, because almost all Ecuadorians will have an account in the Central Bank of Ecuador, the Government will be able to use the money held in that Central Bank, effectively issuing virtual money (which is a common practice of all the banks in the world, nothing new here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg_1iXbIjFQ).

This digital currency will still be US dollars. There is no new currency involved.

Thanks for the insightful information. It was nice of you to clear that up.

And now they can print dollars. That's what they have been eager to do all the time.

Having a universal currency would be the best thing to happen. But again with bitcoin, some form of inequality in terms of distribution will exist.

Inequality will exists forever this has been discussed a lot. If you are there first supporting -> you take bigger risks -> you get more reward. Law of life.

That's very detailed information thank you, yes a lot of people spread pure bullshit around here so it's nice to get someone reliable explaining things, there's plenty of more legitimate rumours I have heard of countries that are going purely digital or at the very least plan to. I personally wouldn't rule out the idea of some fancy new 'world' currency or something coming out that will save us all as Max Keiser predicts but I'm not sure that a lot of countries will even last that long to be able to implement it.

When this new project was announced the Government banned all the digital currencies other than U.S. dollars,
so no one is using BTC or other cryptos (at least publicly and very little privately in my experience).

The digital $ will be used in about one month so nobody is using it yet. I'll post an update when it's publicly available.

You should come and visit it again! I think it has improved a lot in the last 15 years.

It's forbidden to buy or sell anything with digital currencies other than dollars.
The punishment is seizing both the currency and the goods. There's no jail at least.

I haven't heard of any case of seizing anything yet.
I guess that's because bitcoins weren't very common here anyway before the ban.
It wasn't very easy to buy bitcoins or find a place to spend them. And, with the ban, that
kind of services can't be publicly announced so it can't growth.

Running a node, mining or holding coins is not explicitly banned.
Only transacting it is forbidden at the moment.

This seems like a good step anyway.. Perhaps someday Ecuador will accept the cryptocurrency, the benefits of the government issuing their own crypto is just too good... Thanks for the clear up on the news.

I still dont see the point, just use Bitcoin and stop mentally masturbating with useless alts IMO.