WORLD
Sweden to launch digital currency e-krona
Baku, October 29, AZERTAC
The government of Sweden has called for plans to launch a digital version of their fiat currency, the krona, to be brought forward.
As the country moves rapidly towards a cashless future, there are concerns that citizens will turn to means of payments provided by “private agents” without “state-guaranteed” digital cash.
Last year, a report was issued by Sweden’s Riksbank into the prospects of the government launching a digital alternative to their national currency, the krona. The document detailed how the electronic fiat coin would look and function.
The government published a second report calling for the expected launch date of the e-krona to be brought forward.
Today’s report calls for the start of a pilot scheme for the e-krona to be moved forward to 2019. The goal will then be to begin implementing the digital cash by 2021, pending public approval.
Figures reported by Fortune show that Sweden is rapidly moving towards a cashless society.
Many retailers now refuse to take paper money at all and in a recent survey only 13% of Swedes paid for their latest purchase using cash. This leaves those unable to keep up with technology at risk of being excluded from the economy.
It seems likely that the speeding up of the launch of the e-krona will exacerbate, rather than address, these emerging problems.