The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) conducted a poll among a hundred financial experts on the most preferred areas of application for the e-hryvnia.
According to market participants, the most promising use of CBDC is retail cashless payments, including peer-to-peer transfers between individuals and electronic commerce transactions.
In second place is the e-hryvnia as a tool for cross-border payments.
The use of the NBU’s digital currency as a tool for targeted social payments sits near the bottom in terms of scores. At the same time, 77% of respondents supported this option if programmable targeted funds for budgetary payments were built on the e-hryvnia.
Respondents are also interested in the e-hryvnia’s potential for operations in the cryptocurrency market, including exchange and enabling the issuance of digital assets.
Most experts surveyed say that the Ukrainian CBDC should be built on blockchain technology.
Respondents showed considerably less interest in using the e-hryvnia:
- in settling trades in securities and other financial instruments;
- in corporate payments by legal entities;
- as an income-generating financial instrument.
The regulator will continue studying the matter in light of the data collected.
In late 2016, the NBU began taking the first steps to implement the e-hryvnia. Back then, the regulator, together with leading Ukrainian blockchain specialists, began studying international experience, risks and the advantages of existing technological solutions for the country’s financial ecosystem.
The pilot testing of the innovative payment solution began in June 2017. During it, the National Bank issued coins worth about 5,000 hryvnias.
In February 2020, the NBU, together with the blockchain company Distributed Lab, presented the MVP of the digital hryvnia system.
On 30 June 2021, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada approved in second reading and in full the law On Payment Services, which among other things regulates the general principles for issuing CBDC.
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