At the blockchain and cryptocurrency conference in the Bahamas, Kevin Peter Turnquest, deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the Bahamas, announced that the Bahamian government would create its own state-backed cryptocurrency. He noted that the development of the digital payment service is ‘a way forward for this era of governance’.
He continued: A digital Bahamian currency is especially important for the many family islands as they have seen many commercial banks downsize and pull out of their communities, leaving them without banking services. As an island nation, where transportation can be an inconvenience for many, especially the elderly, and costly, we must offer financial services digitally and securely.
Turnquest is also supporting the use of blockchain technology at national level in the hope of turning the Bahamas into a digital paradise. He wants the government to run a testnet for the blockchain-based education system to certificate the participants at the National Training Agency and for the applicability of business licenses, passports and insurances.
The use of technology will considerably eliminate the human factor in banking and government services. If the Bahamas has a single portal for accessing data and all processes are conducted automatically, Bahamian residents will not have to tip anyone to be served; this is a common practice in the country.
In the subreddit r/ethereum, the user named u/waduhekdisis does not support the fact that everything has been stamped as cryptocurrencies lately, especially since something which is state-backed in principle cannot be referred to as a digital currency,, it is just another electric ledger. The advantages of the digital currencies are cryptographic technology and the distributed ledger, so if the cryptocurrency is under the management of the government, those technologies, obviously, will not be necessary.
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum use Proof-of-Work algorithms (Ethereum has recently switched to Proof-of-Stake) to ensure the level of security and the authenticity of the data. A government-issued currency will be managed in the same way as fiat, and this is exactly how banks operate.
The Bahamas currently has two fiat currencies, the Bahamian dollar (BSD) and the U.S. dollar (USD), the BSD/USD rate is 1 BSD = 1 USD. The creation of a native digital currency, By creating a native digital currency, the government can actually reflect the value of the $9 billion Bahamian gross domestic product (GDP).
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