- The Swedish central bank has announced that it will work with the Irish company Accenture to promote the launch of E-Krona.
- After a long application process, many prominent candidates such as IOTA or Stellar Lumens receive a rejection.
Sweden has already been working for several years on the development of the E-Krona, which will replace the current Fiat currency in the long term. Last year, the Swedish Central Bank Riksbank announced a competition in which more than 50 companies took part. IOTA and Stellar Lumens were also among the applicants.
Riksbank cooperates with Accenture for further development of E-Krona
The Swedish central bank would like to establish a platform on which the pilot project for the further development of central bank-supported E-Krona can be focused. While Switzerland is currently opposed to a digital currency issued by a central bank, Riksbank has entered into a partnership with the Irish company Accenture.
The report states that cash use in Sweden has fallen sharply in recent years and that a new alternative is to be developed to make the use of money as easy and convenient as possible for the country’s citizens. Through the pilot project, the Central Bank aims to gain further experience to promote the development of E-Krona:
The primary objective of the e-krona pilot project is to broaden the bank’s understanding of the technological possibilities for the e-krona.
The cooperation includes the provision of a test environment on which all consumer-oriented functions can be tested. This includes, for example, the possibility to pay round the clock by mobile phone. In addition, simulations of payment service providers, retail stores and other parts of the Swedish payment system are to be mapped.
The contract runs until 31 December 2020 with the option of renewing it. However, the maximum term is seven years. The Riksbank has not yet announced a launch date for E-Krona.
The Swedish central bank has been monitoring current developments in the field of digital currencies for some time now, so this step is a logical consequence of the bank’s efforts in this area so far. The head of the Riksbank sees Facebook’s Libra project as a catalyst that has significantly accelerated the progress of all central banks worldwide.
European Central Bank (ECB) discusses launch of digital euro
As we have already reported, the new ECB President presented its plans for the development of a digital euro yesterday at a press conference. Christine Lagarde plans to set up a task force by mid-2020 to accelerate the development of a digital euro and define its objectives.
Lagarde did not call Libra by its name, but the Facebook project is certainly one of the main reasons for the launch of this task force. It also describes an increasing demand for stablecoins. Bitcoin, on the other hand, described them as unimportant:
My personal conviction is that given developments we see, not so much in bitcoin but in stablecoins projects. […] We’d better be ahead of the curve because there is clearly demand out there that we have to respond to.
A few weeks ago, Francois Villeroy de Galha, Governor of the French Central Bank, announced at a press conference that France would be the first country to test the digital euro with a pilot project. Initially, only banks will be involved and access for the normal population will be denied.
China will also launch the pilot project for the launch of the digital yuan earlier than expected. According to reports, China’s central bank will start testing banks and other major businesses. The central bank backed digital currency will be tested with institutions that will bring the digital yuan into the mainstream.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter and don’t miss any hot news anymore! Do you like our price indices?
