A survey conducted among financial professionals has indicated that the industry wants Ukraine’s future digital currency to be used as a tool in the crypto space. The financial sector also favors a blockchain design for the e-hryvnia that would allow peer-to-peer transfers and fuel e-commerce.
Financial Experts Define Potential Uses of Ukraine’s Digital Currency
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has published the results of a survey aimed to establish the potential demand for a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The regulator sent out a set of 30 questions to 100 financial experts with various backgrounds – financial markets, corporate and retail business, public sector, and crypto business.
The poll also had to identify possible use cases for the e-hryvnia. NBU was among the first central banks to start exploring options to issue its own digital currency. It launched a study back in 2016 and then tested a CBDC in retail payments two years later. “We already have practical experience in implementing a pilot project to issue e-hryvnia in 2018,” the Chairman of the NBU Kyrylo Shevchenko noted, elaborating:
To find the really popular options and niches for the e-hryvnia and to determine the potential effect of its implementation, we decided to hear the opinion of financial market experts and conducted a comprehensive survey.
The representatives of the financial sector were offered to choose between six potential areas where they feel the e-hryvnia can be employed. According to the majority of the respondents, the most promising use case would be in non-cash retail payments, primarily peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers between individuals and e-commerce transactions. Using the CBDC for cross-border payments, again as a P2P instrument, is the second most recommended application.
The other options included ‘targeted social benefits (G2P),’ ‘settlement
