The Marshall Islands to issue the SOV: The world’s first Cryptocurrency as a legal tender

The Marshall Islands has passed legislation to issue a national cryptocurrency, the Sovereign (SOV) as legal tender. It proclaims itself the first country in the world to recognize a cryptocurrency as legal tender.

The SOV will have equal status with the USD as legal mode of payment. It will partner with Israeli company Neema to issue this cryptocurrency.

There will be a presale and issue date for the tokens, the timeline for which has not been mentioned yet. The specifics as stated in the law are as follows:

Total Supply – 24 million SOVs (24 as in 24 municipalities of the Marshall Islands)

50% of coins – The Marshall Islands

50% of coins – given to the company Neema

Of the 12 million coins held by The Marshall Islands,

6 million SOVs – sold to international investors

2.4 million SOVs – given to the residents

The rest will be held as reserves

It will avoid the privacy features of coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum and will place the requirement of citizens putting forth their KYC details. The objective of the funds raised from the ICO will be to fund the budget, alleviate global warming effects by investing in the right projects and provide aid to people affected by the American nuclear tests.

This was taken as a step because of the incremental cut in aid given by the USA to the Marshall Islands from $ 70 million/year currently to an estimated $30 million by 2023. And considering the entire budget of the nation is $100 million, the cut in aid is a huge problem for them.

While this seems like a novel money of raising money, it also acts as a catalyst for a global nod towards the benefits of a virtual currency.

But skepticism prevails with respect to the huge portion of the tokens given to Neema. And clarity is still lacking over the benefits gained by the purchase of these coins.

Overall this acts as a key moment in the adoption of virtual currencies along with the Venezuelan PETR. The question is, will the bold move by the Marshall Islands act as a silver lining to their problems or not ?

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