Singapore aiming for it’s own Cryptocurrency

Singapore’s regulator recently revealed to CNBC that the country will finish off its ongoing experiment pertaining to Blockchain Technology and its own indigenous cryptocurrency by next year and will thereafter decide on whether they shall commercialize the trial.

“Project Ubin” was announced by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in 2016 as a means of exploration of the blockchain plethora which is also known as Distributed Ledger Technology. The Blockchain was subdivided into five phases the first of which was concluded earlier this year. This phase has tried to establish a proof-of-concept design for conducting inter-bank payments based on Blockchain Technology.

The second phase also got wrapped up earlier this month and brought forward the development of three different models which could foster inter-bank payments by using Blockchain. Presently the MAS trial is looking at the options of delivering securities across geographical borders and also making use of the digital version of Singapore dollar for carrying out transactions encompassing asset purchase.

Sopnendu Mohanty, the chief fintech officer at MAS revealed on Thursday that,  “I hope next year we will be done with all the elements.”

Banking industry bigshots such as Citi, Bank of America, Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch have been involved actively in the project. He also added that this is a brilliant way to, “bring the broader ecosystem together so we all learn together.” The fintech chief of MAS did not disclose anything regarding how the experiment can affect regulations pertaining to digital world or if it would end up just being a commercial product. The main motive is to showcase the positivity of experimenting with new technology to other regulators. Mohanty told CNBC , “Don’t fear doing experiments and don’t fall into traps of signaling policy changes. Some regulators are afraid to do experiments because of this tremendous external pressure on them. We are trying to drive that culture globally.”

Following its rise in price, Bitcoin had been at the receiving end of tremendous adulteration worldwide with investors bubbling with excitement about the first decentralized peer-to-peer cryptpocurrency. This is forcing regulators worldwide to bring upon a legal architecture for binding the same and ensuring its legal route. However this did not stop some countries from imposing a ban on such digital tokens and associated activities. China has brought about a ban on all cryptocurrency exchanges whereas Japan has recognised the same as a payment mode. Countries such as Estonia and Singapore are also weighing out the prospects of launching their very own cryptocurrency.

Also Read: Russia To Launch It’s Own Cryptocurrency – “CryptoRuble”