Demonetisation, digitisation; It is time to develop nations to encrypt the currency!

Nations should digitise their currency and get them on Blockchain and encourage all monetary transactions to happen over the nations Blockchain infrastructure by making it easily accessible over Internet/kiosks, mobile and dialup connections for even the smallest transactions. It would help nations to achieve immense savings!

Cash is being displaced in so many ways that it is hard to keep track. There are cryptocurrencies that operate outside the purview of central banks; and localised offerings such as Kenya’s mPesa, India’s Paytm and Bangladesh’s bKash. These innovations are encouraging cashless across communities worldwide.

Countries banks and governments working to digitise their currencies

More and more central banks and governments are working to digitise their currencies, and China and Russia have also launched a survey of the potential of the Ethereum, hoping to find a basic agreement as a digital renminbi and ruble from the tower.

China

At present, the Chinese banknote printing and coinage subordinate units – China Mint is testing the Ethereum and its ERC20 token standard, hoping to digitise the yuan. The Chinese mint is in the forefront of research and exploration of digital money. By using the ERC20 token standard, the Chinese mint is actually considering the possibility of issuing unique tokens compatible with the Ethereum network, and Ethereum-compatible tokens will provide greater liquidity and interoperability.

Russia

In addition to China, Russia is also studying the ether and its potential in the financial sector. Although the Russian central bank’s national digital money project technology is expensive and the details are still not disclosed, but in 2016, the Russian bank has announced the development of an Ethereum-based inter-bank block chain prototype. The block chain prototype was named Masterchain. Some large commercial banks in Russia participated in the pilot test, the Russian central bank vice president recently expressed optimism about the encrypted currency.

(Source: btcmanager.com -all about Bitcoin industry)

Singapore

Singapore’s de facto central bank has disclosed new details about its research into financial applications of blockchain technology.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), along with the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) trade group, unveiled a new set of distributed ledger prototypes that form the second phase of “Project Ubin,” an initiative that began last year with the goal of testing how a tokenized version of the Singaporean dollar could be created.

To date, the MAS has taken a more proactive approach to its work with blockchain compared to some central banks. Its research dates back to as early as 2015, when the regulator revealed that it was looking at uses that included leveraging the tech for record-keeping purposes.

(Source: Monetary Authority of Singapore)

Why will money go digital?

• Digital money is cheaperfor the government, a lot of money goes into making money, currency notes and coins are expensive to produce, maintain and replace. It is easier to track currency in digital form than in cash. If you misplace your cash, it’s gone unless you find it back physically. But with modern payment methods like E-wallets and currencies like Bitcoin, you can never lose your money. They have taken security measures like real time notification, tokenization, and two-factor authorization to prevent situations like theft or fraud.

Digital payment platform like E-wallets give users ability to check their bank account and credit card balance, create budgets, track spending, send money to friends and family, split restaurant tabs, pay for an Uber or Ola ride, and even pay their bills directly from their mobile device. With all these conveniences at your fingertips, customers love that this happens in real time with speed and efficiency, thus more and more people are embracing it every day.

• It can bring tax evasion to an end,usually what happens in a shady cash transaction is that a buyer wants to buy a product of 1, 00,000 Rupees and the seller offers to write him or her a receipt of just 10,000 Rupees as part of the deal. Thus, the buyer only has to pay sales tax over the amount of 10 thousand when he or she buys the product. This won’t be possible in the cashless world of the digital transaction, where it is all about money trail with a time stamp. Digital transactions will be the biggest threat to the criminal and illegal operations of any economy, for instance robbing someone won’t be possible if their money is digital or a bribe won’t be as effective if it trails back to their wallet.

The whole world is moving towards a cashless economy, private and government organizations are working together to achieve that goal as they see the benefits. A lot of developed countries want to be 100% cashless economies this year with Belgium, France and Canada leading the way. Other countries like US and UK have kept a healthy goal of achieving 75% transaction until 2025. There are concerns regarding adaptations and security, primarily among people who are not part of the millennial generation but only gradual exposure and education can solve that problem as eventual digitization of all money is inevitable.