A nation which never had its national currency is for the first time in its history is venturing into having a national currency. That in itself is indeed a great step, but what makes its all the edgier is that this nation is straight away venturing into having its very own national cryptocurrency. The nation we are talking about is The Republic of the Marshall of Islands.
The need to have a national cryptocurrency “Marshallese sovereign (SOV)”
The U.S. ruled The Republic of the Marshall of Islands from 1945 to 1986. Since 1986, after gaining independence from the U.S, The Marshal Islands has been using the U.S. Dollar as its national currency. The island nation from the Pacific Ocean doesn’t have its currency. The U.S. also conducted various nuclear tests on the islands from 1947 to 1962. That resulted in various environmental issues, alarming sea levels, and all kinds of challenges to the life of the islands.
As a result, the U.S. gave compensatory funds to the islands. But these funds will stop coming in after 2023. The combination of environmental issues and the nearing end point of flowing compensatory funds from the U.S. has made The Republic of the Marshall of Islands think of a solution to the situation at hand. The country’s government strongly feels that cryptocurrency can offer a solution which they are seeking for. And that is why they are planning to launch a national cryptocurrency: Marshallese sovereign (SOV.)
Marshallese sovereign (SOV)
The country announced its plans on releasing the cryptocurrency during “Invest: Asia Cryptocurrency Conference” in Singapore on 10th September 2019. The announcement made it clear that the SOV crypto will be introduced in a very transparent manner. Some of the unique features of this crypto will be:
- Timed Release Monetary Issuance (TRMI): The sale of SOV will be held for a healthy amount of time to cut out any scope of FOMO. That will allow the citizens of the country to embrace the idea of a nationalized crypto and will give them time to understand it, instead of rushing them into buying it.
- Fully Regulated: The SOV will adhere to all the expected regulations, thus assuring absolute security, transparency, as well as privacy. It will make sure that it follows processes such as KYC, AML, CFT, and other filtering processes. On this, Minister Paul said,
“It is crucial that the individual users should have a reasonable expectation of privacy- specifically, the ability to choose when to disclose your information, what exactly to share, and with whom.”
- Not just another cryptocurrency, but a “National cryptocurrency”: SOV is not just any new entry in the crypto sphere. It is rather a legal tender of The Republic of the Marshall of Islands. It is the country’s first-ever national cryptocurrency. That makes the acceptance of the SOV omnipresent within the islands.
- SOV on the international stage: Given SOV will be the country’s national cryptocurrency, it naturally puts the cryptocurrency in the position to be traded on Forex exchanges, given The Republic of the Marshall of Islands is one of the members of the UN. That gives the cryptocurrency an edge over all the cryptocurrencies ever-present.
- Best of both the worlds!: It is the first time in the history of the cryptocurrency and the traditional financial sector that a cryptocurrency has the power of being both a legal tender of a country, as well as being a cryptocurrency.
In search of a “sustainable approach.”
Minister Paul further adds-
“We chose to create a fixed money supply with fixed growth because fiat currencies can be remarkably unstable. […] The policies of major central banks are not reassuring, as the gold and Bitcoin prices attest. We as governments need to take a more sustainable approach to money, and not treat it as a limitless resource.”
The uniqueness of the SOV launch is both exciting and unknown. The country doesn’t possess any first-hand experience in neither having a national currency nor a cryptocurrency. So, it is like a big gamble, which will shoot the country’s future far off in either of the directions. We wish the country nothing but the best to fight the environmental challenge that is right in front of them. SOV may prove to be the luckiest key to open the lock for The Republic of the Marshall of Islands.