The National Bank of Ukraine issued a statement saying it was considering to launch a digital version of the Ukrainian national currency, the hryvnia. The digital hryvnia would not be based on the blockchain technology, at least not for the time being.
The announcement on the bank’s Facebook page says the bank is researching new and innovative technologies within the project called Cashless Economy and the e-hryvnia is a part of the project.
The National Bank of Ukraine underlined a difference between a digital currency it is planning to launch and the national cryptocurrency, which would be based on the blockchain technology be definition: “The National Bank would like to make clear that we are talking about the possibility to launch the electronic hryvnia and not our own cryptocurrency.”
The possibility to launch e-hryvnia based on the blockchain technology is still being considered, according to the bank.
The plans to launch a digital currency and not a national cryptocurrency are completely opposite to the plans of Russia in this field. The Russian government is still considering to launch the CryptoRuble, a national cryptocurrency based on the blockchain technology. The first plans to launch the CryptoRuble were revealed back in 2015.
Belarus, another neighboring country of Ukraine, revealed plans to become a zone adapted for the cryptocurrencies, which would facilitate the trading of cryptocurrencies and foreign investments.
In the meantime, the Ukrainian crypto community saw a few unpleasant events that occurred in December last year. After a sudden police action related to the crypto magazine called ForkLog from Odessa, Pavel Lerner, the director of the EXMO exchange was kidnapped in Kiev. According to the media, after a ransom of one million dollars in bitcoins was paid, Lerner was released by the kidnappers.
The authorities in Ukraine formed a working group that is dealing with the research of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are supposed to be regulated by the law.
