The National Bank of Georgia is exploring the possibility of issuing a state cryptocurrency to improve the efficiency of the internal payment system and the availability of financial services.
According to the statement of the Central Bank of Georgia, the country plans to join the growing number of states preparing the release of the state cryptocurrency.
The regulator encourages technology companies, the fintech industry and interested financial institutions to cooperate with the Central Bank to develop the digital Georgian lari. The Central Bank can create a regulatory sandbox or testing environment for companies working on a government cryptocurrency project. The regulator expects that the project “will increase the efficiency of the internal payment system and the availability of financial services.” The Central Bank did not publish technical details regarding the development of the state cryptocurrency. The goal of issuing digital lari largely repeats the goals of other projects of state cryptocurrencies: stimulating innovation, increasing the efficiency of financial services and the availability of financial services.
The National Bank of Georgia expects proposals from potential private sector partners to reduce development costs, ease of use of the system, and near instant settlement. The future solution should also include the ability to deploy smart contracts and automatic payments, “for example, automatic tax accounting and collection of taxes for simple transactions.”
The state cryptocurrency must comply with the recommendations of the International Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) and allow the regulator to collect statistical data without de-anonymizing users.
In April, Norway began testing technical solutions for issuing state cryptocurrencies, and a working group for issuing state cryptocurrencies was set up in the UK.
