Marshall Islands, a small country of 53,000 people in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, may become the first sovereign state to make a cryptocurrency its legal tender, which means that its official digital currency must be accepted as a means of payment.
Whereas Bitcoin, for example, is a legal currency in the United States, Japan, and South Korea, it has not gained legal tender status anywhere in the world yet. If that were to happen, it would be illegal not to accept Bitcoin in exchange for goods and services within a jurisdiction. That is the bold step that the government of the Marshall Islands is taking with its official cryptocurrency named Sovereign (SOV).
SOV will have its token sale starting in the third quarter of 2018 and coins will be capped at 24 million SOV, according to Minister-in-Assistance to the President & Environment Minister of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The government has no plans to end fiat money in the near future. SOV will be complementary to the US dollar, the country鈥檚 only legal tender since 1982.
Behind the creation of the proprietary digital currency is Neema, an Israeli fintech company headed by Chief Executive Officer Ben-Ezer who was the first to propose the idea to the island nation. The company has based its business on its app that helps people manage their money as well as send money to other people. Ben-Ezer will now be partly responsible for proving to the world that cryptocurrencies are real alternatives to fiat money in a market economy. He expects a global impact from this as it may set off a chain reaction on how cryptocurrencies are viewed and regulated.
