The Marshall Islands replaces the US dollar with its own cryptocurrency

[avikz]

It's official now!

The Marshall Islands decided to create its own official decentralized (you read it right!) cryptocurrency, doing away with the US dollar. The government has signed the change into law on 26 February 2018. The law has come into effect from 1 March 2018.

The Marshall Islands’ population is little over 50k, so the change won't affect many, but it is significant for citizens of the islands because banks and credit card companies will need to begin accepting it. However, US dollars are not likely to be phased out from Marshall Islands — the sovereign will just be considered the nation’s official legal tender.

Tweet source: https://twitter.com/cryptomanran/status/998953063573540864
News source: https://www-theverge-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/5/23/17384608/marshall-islands-cryptocurrency-us-dollar-usd-currency

Legal documents:
   
   

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[Harlot]

What a bold move by their government, especially the part when they are creating their own official cryptocurrency as a decentralized based crytpocurrency. They have the right to have their own currency to begin with unlike Guam or Puerto Rico the Marshall Islands has never been a constituent country of the United States therefore giving them freedom to choose what money they can use. I think their move of making their own money decentralized is for foreign investors to buy their own cryptocurrency, I think they are letting outside forces to manipulate it which I don't know how they will handle in the future.

[1Referee]

I like the incentive in the way that they want to distance themselves from the USD, but it doesn't solve the problem of how they manage to keep their currency valuable and thriving under all circumstances. In the end, it still depends on the government there, which means there is one massive single point of failure that is impossible to overcome in the worst case scenario. For that reason I don't believe it is a +10 years viable solution to get rid of external elements.

If you really want to make a statement and distance yourself from everything, and at the same time make sure the currency isn't exposed to your incompetence as government, Bitcoin is actually the only viable option to go for. Regardless how the government messes things up there, Bitcoin will remain holding its value, and so will people remain holding their wealth.

[jseverson]

Is it really decentralized? I can't seem to find information about it. It looks like it will be state-issued, so I kind of have my doubts:

“As a country, we reserve the right to issue a currency in whatever form it is, whether in digital or fiat form,” said David Paul minister-in-assistance to the president of the Marshall Islands

They have some serious balls if they want to use a decentralized currency as their official legal tender though. I hope they have some serious anti-manipulation precautions in place.

[darkangel11]

The history is being made right now. First it was through the development of a cryptocurrency, then it was official acceptance of cryptocurrencies by countries like Japan and Korea, followed by first centralized currency made by a government (petro) and now we'll most likely have a first official decentralized crypto.
I guess they're done with depending on the US and their constantly devalued fiat money. I hope that more countries will follow.

[audaciousbeing]

What a bold move by their government, especially the part when they are creating their own official cryptocurrency as a decentralized based crytpocurrency. They have the right to have their own currency to begin with unlike Guam or Puerto Rico the Marshall Islands has never been a constituent country of the United States therefore giving them freedom to choose what money they can use. I think their move of making their own money decentralized is for foreign investors to buy their own cryptocurrency, I think they are letting outside forces to manipulate it which I don't know how they will handle in the future.

This is a bold move though but I really didnt see anything different from what is happening. They decide to have their own currency which any country that have a leader should have and not that they are abandoning the dollar which is exactly what every other country in the world also do. What is different here is just that instead of them now printing paper currency and have to cope with all of the disadvanatges of that, they decide to go digital by exploring the blockchain technology and maybe borrow some concepts from the existing crypto-currency.

I don't see the US losing any sleep over this because the total population might not be more than a town in Manhattan, so also I am not seeing the effect on bitcoin because they are not even using it and they might have to start exchanging it for dollars in other to trade with outside people who wont accept their crypto currency and might not be listed on exchange sites where it could be traded for bitcoin.

[buwaytress]

I like the incentive in the way that they want to distance themselves from the USD, but it doesn't solve the problem of how they manage to keep their currency valuable and thriving under all circumstances. In the end, it still depends on the government there, which means there is one massive single point of failure that is impossible to overcome in the worst case scenario. For that reason I don't believe it is a +10 years viable solution to get rid of external elements.

If you really want to make a statement and distance yourself from everything, and at the same time make sure the currency isn't exposed to your incompetence as government, Bitcoin is actually the only viable option to go for. Regardless how the government messes things up there, Bitcoin will remain holding its value, and so will people remain holding their wealth.

That's the main vulnerability of government-backed cryptocurrency... it offers no different alternative to the fiat status quo, other than perhaps more efficient technology in terms of security and keeping monitoring schedules on the currency. It's just fiat, digitalized, in my opinion. They're missing the point with crypto/Bitcoin, in that it is decentralized - or at least, supposed to be. If anything, the USD has more than that one point of failure that the Marshall Islands will have with their new coin.

Perhaps they will learn this in time, and we'll see a country make that Bitcoin move.

[milewilda]

Is it really decentralized? I can't seem to find information about it. It looks like it will be state-issued, so I kind of have my doubts:

“As a country, we reserve the right to issue a currency in whatever form it is, whether in digital or fiat form,” said David Paul minister-in-assistance to the president of the Marshall Islands

They have some serious balls if they want to use a decentralized currency as their official legal tender though. I hope they have some serious anti-manipulation precautions in place.

Manipulation would really be there and i dont really see for it to be decentralized yet this is their own cryptocurrency even they do declared it decentralized im not really convince into this matter.
Most of us do really hope for this kind of transition but now it do happen but not on applying bitcoin and most of them do tend to create their own coin instead which i dont see any difference at all.

[avikz]

Is it really decentralized? I can't seem to find information about it. It looks like it will be state-issued, so I kind of have my doubts:

“As a country, we reserve the right to issue a currency in whatever form it is, whether in digital or fiat form,” said David Paul minister-in-assistance to the president of the Marshall Islands

They have some serious balls if they want to use a decentralized currency as their official legal tender though. I hope they have some serious anti-manipulation precautions in place.

Manipulation would really be there and i dont really see for it to be decentralized yet this is their own cryptocurrency even they do declared it decentralized im not really convince into this matter.
Most of us do really hope for this kind of transition but now it do happen but not on applying bitcoin and most of them do tend to create their own coin instead which i dont see any difference at all.

The same thought struck in my mind as well. When a government is issuing their own virtual crypto currency, how it can be decentralized? But we are standing at a very nascent stage of this development and not in a position to comment on it. I am following this development and definitely will need to understand the nitty gritties of it. That won't happen unless they actually issue the currency.

However, it is official statement about decentralized crypto currency as you can see in the legal documents. So lets hope for the best.

[marielbeckham]

This is definitely the most exciting news I've read today.

[gentlemand]

"The sovereign will be launched through an initial coin offering and supply is supposed to be capped at 24 million tokens, as a precaution against inflation. Paul said in February that a token presale for investors would launch soon, but there’s been no further word on that yet."

They're nuts. And what government currency kicks off with an ICO?

And who or what is securing it?

And how will the population's value tied up in it be protected?

The last time there was a governmentcoin it was Mazacoin if I recall which evaporated almost instantly.

[krishnapramod]

It's a bold move, but at the same time a bit desperate too, launching a national cryptocurrency via an ICO. According to their law page, SOV is non-redeemable, 2.4 million tokens would be initially distributed to the citizens, 6 million to international investors, another 6 million to National /healthcare/climate fund, paying off debts and 50% to an Israel startup, Neema, the brain behind SOV, understandable, with RMI having a mobile penetration rate of 30% and internet with 19% it would cost a lot of money to build an infrastructure around SOV. As far as decentralization, you have a government issued cryptocurrency with a startup having 50% shares, questionable.

For obvious reasons, no anonymity and as far as manipulation:

SOV is the first fiat currency with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism properties built in. All transactions on the SOV blockchain are identifiable, but not public.

To send SOV from a wallet, a user must first have an identity token provided by a pre-selected, reputable Know-Your-Customer (KYC) company. This way money always flows between identified accounts.

Once someone converts the coin to fiat money, there will be a face recognition process. This process does not exist at the initial offering stage, as is customary in ICOs. The technique will be using face detection technology to make sure that it is the right person who draws the money.

With a population of around 70,000, it does seem like a good environment to experiment with a national cryptocurrency. Ecuador tried to experiment with their own digital/electronic currency, failed. Let's see if RMI succeeds.

https://www.sov.global

https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Marshall-Islands-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses

[stomachgrowls]

It's a bold move, but at the same time a bit desperate too, launching a national cryptocurrency via an ICO. According to their law page, SOV is non-redeemable, 2.4 million tokens would be initially distributed to the citizens, 6 million to international investors, another 6 million to National /healthcare/climate fund, paying off debts and 50% to an Israel startup, Neema, the brain behind SOV, understandable, with RMI having a mobile penetration rate of 30% and internet with 19% it would cost a lot of money to build an infrastructure around SOV. As far as decentralization, you have a government issued cryptocurrency with a startup having 50% shares, questionable.

For obvious reasons, no anonymity and as far as manipulation:

SOV is the first fiat currency with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism properties built in. All transactions on the SOV blockchain are identifiable, but not public.

To send SOV from a wallet, a user must first have an identity token provided by a pre-selected, reputable Know-Your-Customer (KYC) company. This way money always flows between identified accounts.

Once someone converts the coin to fiat money, there will be a face recognition process. This process does not exist at the initial offering stage, as is customary in ICOs. The technique will be using face detection technology to make sure that it is the right person who draws the money.

With a population of around 70,000, it does seem like a good environment to experiment with a national cryptocurrency. Ecuador tried to experiment with their own digital/electronic currency, failed. Let's see if RMI succeeds.

https://www.sov.global

https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Marshall-Islands-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses

So what would be the entire supply of such digital currency? 2.4 million tokens would be initially distributed to the citizens which you have stated they do have 70,000 population i dont think it would really be sufficient. The thing i do like i on the allocated 6 million to National /healthcare/climate fund but another 6 million to international investors would really turn out to be skeptical for me.