Tunisia to become first country to issue national currency via blockchain

Tunisia will become the first country to issue its own currency through crypto technology.

Tunisia is located at the northernmost tip of the African continent, facing the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east, and across the Strait of Tunisia from Sicily, Italy. It is a key point for east-west shipping in the Mediterranean. It borders Libya to the southeast and Algeria to the west. Tunisia has a population of about 10 million.

Over the years, African countries have also made great progress in payment. Since 2007, M-Pesa has been popular in Kenya and has improved the business operations and efficiency of South African companies. BitPesa has promoted Bitcoin to Africa, allowing many people to know Bitcoin, an advanced digital currency technology. Now Monetas has brought blockchain to Tunisia.

Johann Gevers, CEO of Monetas, told TechMoran:

We see mobile financial services growing rapidly in the region and Monetas can provide people with a platform to transact at a lower cost than any alternative, with interoperability across mobile networks and the ability to process new financial instruments, giving people economic freedom and benefits.

Monetas is a bit like ConsensusYs in the Bitcoin space. They recently partnered with Microsoft to launch a new cloud-based blockchain platform for large financial institutions to experiment with new technologies.

Monetas claims to provide notary-like protection for transactions on the new platform, similar to the Bitcoin system, except Bitcoin mining, as the currency is not created in-house. Gevers described how the Monetas system could change Tunisia in 2016:

Monetas is enabling the first full digital payments ecosystem in Tunisia. With the launch of the La Poste Tunisia Android app powered by Monetas, Tunisians will be able to use their smartphones to instantly send money, pay for goods and services online, pay salaries and bills, and manage official government identification documents.

Tunisia already has an electronic legal tender, called the "eDinar," which is used through Tunisia Post. 90% of adults in Tunisia have a bank account with Tunisia Post, while more than 3 million Tunisian adults do not have any bank accounts. Tunisia's government leaders want to improve this, and they hope that in partnership with Monetas, they can achieve these goals in one go through blockchain technology. Soon, more than 600,000 Tunisians will have access to this new system through Tunisia Post, a project that is a joint effort between Tunisia Post, the Tunisian government, and French Poste Tunisia (LPT).

However, it seems difficult for Bitcoin to develop in Tunisia. In many countries, Bitcoin is in a regulatory gray area. In Tunisia, Bitcoin has not been approved by the central bank or the national government. Gevers revealed that he intends to expand this similar system to "12 markets" next year, which may not be nationwide like Tunisia.

There are already many countries working to combat corrupt banking systems and give their people the freedom to decide their economic policies, so we have reason to expect a more inclusive and technologically advanced economic future, at least on a smaller scale, where some countries are willing to stand up for innovative financial development models and abandon those outdated economic development models.

Original article: http://dcebrief.com/tunisia-becomes-first-nation-to-put-nations-currency-on-a-blockchain/
By Evander Smart
Translator: printemps
Editor: printemps
Source (translation): Babbitt Information