According to foreign media reports, Sweden is studying the use of its own national cryptocurrency, or it will become the world’s first cashless country.
According to the Spanish “Economist” website reported on December 11, Sweden, the Nordic country, may become the first batch of countries without cash. Sweden announced the implementation of a pilot test of the electronic crown in May this year, making it one of the first countries in the world to consider issuing national cryptocurrencies. Since then, the Swedish government announced that it will start studying the feasibility of using digital currency for the national financial system on December 11.
Swedish Minister of Financial Markets and Housing Per Bolund stated that the feasibility study of digital currency operations launched on the 11th is expected to be completed by the end of November 2022. In order to achieve this transition, “the digital payment market can operate safely and benefit everyone. is crucial”. Anna Hinberg Bartra, the former chairman of the Financial Committee of the Swedish Central Bank, will lead the committee to carry out this large-scale research project.
At the same time, with the assistance of the American management and information consulting company Accenture, the country’s major monetary authorities continue to carry out the electronic crown pilot project, and hope that the electronic currency can be based on the same technology that supports other cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin).
However, Stefan Inves, governor of the Riksbank, is still cautious about the future of this electronic currency, and said that any decision on whether to issue an electronic krona needs to be made at the political level because “how to design a digital currency And the technology used may have a significant impact on the entire financial system.”
The Riksbank estimates that in October this year, the country’s cash usage fell to the lowest level in history, because the new crown pneumonia epidemic prompted people to further abandon cash. It pointed out that less than 10% of payments in Sweden are in cash. The Bank for International Settlements pointed out in 2018 that Sweden has the lowest proportion of cash in the world.
