Estonia plans to launch the world’s first government-supported cryptocurrency called ‘Estcoin’ through ICO.
Small eastern European country Estonia will be the first country in the world who plans to issue government-backed cryptocurrency. It has announced that new cryptocurrency will be called “Estcoin” and will be launched through ICO.
ICO or Initial Coin Offering is a process by which funds are raised for a new cryptocurrency venture. This process is similar to Initial Public Offerings (IPO), but aims to make investments more personal.
At first sight launch of Estonian government cryptocurrency can be thought rather risky for such country. However, Estonia is not a new player in the sphere of digital technology and innovation.
It was the first country that allowed any person in the world to have a digital ID in order to have access to Estonian services like banking, payment processing and taxation. It was provided by e-Residency program issued by the Estonian government and registered on the Blockchain. The project aimed to implement digital innovations in order to build a new digital nation.
Another step for digital development was taken by Estonia on December 1st, 2015. Estonia entered into agreement with the blockchain governance platform Bitnation to offer notary services to e-residents. Today e-Residency program counts more than 22,000 e-residents from 138 countries.
Kaspar Korjus, the managing director of e-Residency said that the main aim of “Estcoin” creation was to create ‘borderless digital nation’. “A government-supported ICO would give more people a bigger stake in the future of our country and provide not just investment, but also more expertise and ideas to help us grow exponentially,” Kaspar Korjus said.
The money raised from the Estcoin’s ICO will be transferred in public and private sectors. Unsurprising that Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, is interested in Estonia’s digital development. His feedback for the “estcoin” proposal was the following: “An ICO within the e-Residency ecosystem would create a strong incentive alignment between e-residents and this fund, and beyond the economic aspect makes the e-residents feel like more of a community since there are more things they can do together.”
He added: “Additionally if these estcoins are issued on top of a blockchain (they could possibly be issued in multiple formats at the same time, nothing wrong with this) then it would become easy and convenient to use them inside of smart contracts and other applications.”
There is no doubt that Estonia will meet their expectation and continue to develop digital technology, as all steps in this sphere are backed by Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid.
“Almost all our citizens’ interactions with the government, including voting, can be done securely online, and our ‘e-residents’ can incorporate and run their businesses in Estonia without ever having to set foot here,” she said. Moreover, Mrs Kaljulaid believes that her nation is “the only truly digital society.”
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