Estonia is looking forward to launching a new digital currency “Estcoin”, in competition with the already circulating Bitcoin and Ethereum. Estonia isn’t the first country to consider having a national level digital currency –– China and Russia are also testing new digital currencies.
Estonia has already made a reputation of venturing in public sector digital infrastructure by launching e-residency — a program, launched two and half years ago, which allows foreign entrepreneurs to virtually cite their business in Estonia. Estcoin is proposed by Kaspar Korjus, the managing director of e-Residency.
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Estcoin will be launched by ICO (Initial Coin Offering) – cryptocurrency’s version of initial public offering. The proposed digital currency is expected to provide benefit to the e-residents and also boost the country’s economy.
“Estcoin will enable anyone to invest in a country for the first time. Investing in any crypto asset can come with high risks and high rewards, but holders of estcoins would have the added incentive of supporting the development of our digital nation,” Kaspar Korjus said in a blog post.
Founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, has also shown a keen interest in Estcoin. “An ICO within the e-Residency ecosystem would create a strong incentive alignment between e-residents and this fund, and beyond the economic aspect makes the e-residents feel like more of a community since there are more things they can do together,” Ethereum founder said.
Estcoin can become the official digital currency of e-resident program. However, as of yet, it is just an idea which needs further approval, as Kasprat Korgu himself said, “This is not national policy yet, but it is an idea worth considering, which has the potential to become reality”
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