National Bank of Ukraine unveils E-hryvnia concept – Finance Bitcoin News

The Central Bank of Ukraine has presented to interested parties a draft of the concept for the nation’s future digital currency, the e-hryvnia. The regulator is currently considering several potential uses for its digital coin, including retail payments and cross-border settlements.

The Monetary Authority of Ukraine introduces banks and businesses to the E-hryvnia project

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has presented a draft concept for its future central bank digital currency (CBDC) to representatives of banks, other financial institutions and crypto market participants. The regulator is seeking feedback on the possible issuance of this version of the national fiat currency, the hryvnia.

The main purpose of the e-hryvnia will be to supplement the cash and non-cash forms of the Ukrainian money, the monetary policy regulator explained in an announcement published on Monday. The plan is to make it available to all sections of the population, legal entities, government bodies, the banking and financial sector.

The project was launched in September last year. Since then, the NBU has been investigating the possibility of a large-scale issuance of the digital currency. In a quoted statement, the bank’s deputy chairman Oleksiy Shaban emphasized that the development and implementation of e-hryvnia could be the next step in the development of Ukraine’s payment infrastructure and elaborated:

[The e-hryvnia] will contribute to the digitization of the economy, the further spread of cashless payments, the reduction of their costs, the increase in the level of their transparency and increased confidence in the national currency in general.

During the meeting with the interested parties, the NBU presented the draft design of the e-hryvnia, its architecture, features and benefits for payment service providers, including the possibility of instant payments. The bank took into account the results of a survey among financial market experts on the demand for a digital hryvnia, which was conducted in 2021.

The National Bank of Ukraine is now considering several possible implementations of the e-hryvnia. Among them are the use of CBDC for non-cash retail payments, targeted social and other public payments and smart contracts.

The coin can also be used to facilitate the circulation of digital assets, including issuance, exchange and other related operations. “E-hryvnia can become one of the key elements in the qualitative infrastructure development for the virtual asset market in Ukraine,” the central bank believes. It can also enable payments across national borders, making them faster, cheaper and more transparent.

Ukraine has yet to fully regulate its digital currency space. Last fall, the parliament in Kyiv, the Verkhovna Rada, passed a bill “On Virtual Assets” that was signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in March 2022 after certain revisions that he requested.

The country’s securities watchdog was recently tasked with preparing changes to tax legislation necessary to enforce the law. In the meantime, work has begun to update it in accordance with EU standards in the area. Ukraine has relied on crypto donations to fund its defense and humanitarian efforts during the ongoing military conflict with Russia.

Do you think Ukraine will be able to issue its e-hryvnia in the near future? Share your expectations in the comments section below.

Lubomir Tassev

Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchens’ quote: “To be a writer is what I am, rather than what I do.” Besides crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.