Early Adopters of Crypto Will Benefit Most
In fintech, changes happen with mind-boggling speeds and first-mover advantage here is of a particular importance. Bitcoin is believed to be so popular mainly because it was the first such system to go on the market. The same might be true for other local developing cryptocurrencies like our NOAH coin that circulates within the Noah Ecosystem.
Various cryptocurrencies seek to bring blockchains to particular niches. But is it possible for whole countries to introduce their own national cryptocurrencies?
Let’s find out.
Size of the country’s economy is not important
In this regard, it seems that the size of the country’s economy does not play a key role. It’s the most agile and innovative nations that have the strongest advantage, not the oldest or biggest. And, naturally, the nation should be open to innovations in the fields of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. In addition, democratic values and economic transparency can help a lot, but might not be the deciding factor as China might show in the near future.
Singapore has been working on digitizing Singapore Dollar (SGD).
The country intends to put SGD on Ethereum in order to benefit from the advantages it would bring. Introducing SGD, the government hopes to eliminate the problem of fake paper money. With blockchain, transactions will be processed at very high speeds. Moreover, there won’t be any need of intermediaries to control if contracts are performed as they should.
Singapore is quite a small nation but if it becomes the first country to move to blockchain, it can turn into the most important hub for cryptonomics and show bigger nations a path to state-based cryptocurrencies.
Officially, Singapore has been looking into this area for over six months. This fact has been well publicized and many are eyeing the developments in this country.
China banned all cryptos, but its central bank seems to be active at developing its own crypto-yuan.
There is very little information on how exactly the Chinese cryptocurrency will function, but what’s certain is that China will — at some point — launch the crypto-yuan.
Taking into account the centralization-based approach to managing economy, it’s expected that the virtual currency will be under tight control of the PBoC (People’s Bank of China).
Probably, the state cryptocurrency will not be fully based on the principles of decentralization, but nevertheless, it might help resolve some of the issues that China faces in the financial sector.
Why do countries decide to consider launching national cryptocurrencies?
Today, there is still no real nation-level cryptocurrency and all the active participants in this segment are only deliberating a possible shift to crypto.
Major economies like US, Canada, Australia and others have not voiced their desire to convert their currencies into crypto yet. The reason for it might lie in their dominant positions in the financial world. Whenever a person or a company is concerned about the future of the country where it operates, it might seek to “wait it out” in a safe haven currency. This means that such companies “move out” of weaker currencies, such as Russian ruble, Venezuelan bolivar and Mexican peso, and “park” their profits in safer currencies, like US dollar, Canadian dollar, euro, etc.
Countries with weaker currencies might be interested in “turning the tables” and becoming the “safer” state-based cryptocurrencies, since businesses and individuals might be willing to “park” money in these new currencies, considering them a safer bet.
Russia might be considering a crypto route in order to avoid sanctions.
There are rumors that the Russian financial institutions might be working on a crypto ruble, which will help the country sidestep sanctions, imposed by Western nations.
Iran might be also looking to launch a state-issued cryptocurrency.
Iran’s government might be on the same path with one of the ministers pushing in the direction of the cloud-based cryptocurrency to help the failing economy.
Sweden is talking to IOTA and Stellar about its Ekrona project.
Sweden has published an extensive report, which looks into how a nation-issued cryptocurrency should look like. Sweden has been one of the most economically favorable countries in Europe, and Swedish society is looking to go completely cashless in the near future.
The use of a virtual currency is a great fit for such a movement, enabling fast transactions, preventing fraud and crime, while also enabling unknown-before transparency.
Notably, in the process of going cashless, Sweden has shown that it enables to significantly cut corruption and crime, as cash can be used to carry out nefarious activities without any restraints. In comparison, virtual solutions bring more transparency and accountability.
Stablecoins might reduce volatility
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that fully mirror the dynamics of fiat currencies but are stored on the blockchain. They might become an important connecting piece between the worlds of fiat and cryptocurrencies in the years to come.
Today, the most well-known stablecoin is Tether (USDT) which price equals to US dollar.
Local development cryptocurrencies
In addition to stablecoins, local cryptocurrencies that help develop projects might become a perfect link between broader cryptocurrency space and contributors. Among these, our Noah Project has been focusing on delivering a suite of infrastructure projects in the Philippines.
To learn more, read our White Paper. The Noah Foundation seeks to simplify for Filipino overseas workers to send remittances to their families back at home. The Foundation offers the Ark Wallet, used to store and transfer various cryptocurrencies, as well as the Ark Remittance, enabling to remit money at approximately 3% fee (which is much lower as compared to fees charged by traditional payment services). In addition, the Foundation has recently partnered up with PayRemit, enabling holders of NOAH coin to make purchases in hundreds of online stores and service providers connected to the provider.
The Foundation has been focused on delivering long-term infrastructure projects in the Philippines, including the Noah City and Noah Resort. The Noah City will include a number of real estate objects to be located within the Horizon Manila, a new business district that is planned for construction on the reclaimed land near Manila. The Noah Resort will be located in the Mindanao Island. The visitors will be able to transact both in fiat and cryptocurrencies, while benefiting from significant discounts when making purchases in our native NOAH token.
Conclusion
Fintech is developing at extremely fast rates and it’s conceivable that only in 3–5 years many nations would start using some form of blockchain-powered currencies. Undoubtedly, this will bring forward a suite of great advantages, such as new capabilities to monitor cash flows, prevent forgery and improve trust in the financial system of a particular country.
Those countries that choose to implement cryptocurrencies first might benefit from improved trust in their economies as compared to other countries which have not yet introduced such solutions.
At the same time, cryptocurrencies that focus on local development in particular geographic locations, such as our Noah Project, might come to serve as a link between the fiat and cryptocurrency worlds, enabling an accelerated adoption of blockchain-powered solutions around the world. They will do that by demonstrating the value and ease of their use to carry out most various transactions, including remittances, contributions to long-term projects and making purchases via systems like PayRemit.
