Sweden Ramps Up Designs for the Government-Issued Cryptocurrency E-Krona

Sweden and its central bank called Riksbank have been working on the idea of adopting a digital currency or cryptocurrency from their own central bank in order to adapt to the needs of their society which has been adopting digital crypto currency at an astounding rate.

The bank just last year issued a report describing what the crypto coin or E-Krona would look like as far as software and the design of the electronic currency for the future. The pilot program is ramping up and it seems as though this form of digital currency is going to be a value based digital currency that can be stored on cards and used for transactions in much the same way you would a bank card. The weight it will differ however is in the nature of transactions and the way that they will be tracked. Rather than many forms of traditional currency, a public ledger will exist for this digital cryptocurrency and this will be responsible for every transaction within the system. Without a need for any type of governing body or administration it’s quite possible that the overall costs of managing the currency could be greatly reduced on traditional means.

Legislative changes as soon as the digital currency has been properly tested could eventually change the way that cryptocurrencies rest within legal standing in Sweden. Central banks have yet to properly define electronic currency and there isn’t enough legislation currently in place for the government to release their own program. New changes for a government linked digital currency however would have to be lined up by the time the system was ready to go live.

The sudden rush for this electronic version of Sweden’s currency is in response to the rate at which many citizens are going cashless. Many would consider this to be even too quick when compared to other parts of the world. There are some banks across Sweden that no longer accept cash or even handle cash. Only around 13% of Swedish citizens are paying for their purchases in cash just this year and this is an incredible cut from the 39% surveyed using cash in 2010.

It’s difficult for many individuals to place their trust in digital currency especially with a generation gap. Unless there is proper legislation and guidance in place it will be difficult for many of Sweden’s older citizens to adopt mobile and digital payments.

As the use of cash continues to decline in Sweden it will be interesting to see how government organizations work to ramp up legislation and development to meet the demand in this trends. Sweden’s work here could pioneer a new path for laws regarding cryptocurrency, especially when it is linked to a conventional centralized source such as a major traditional bank.