The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) will continue to study the possibility of issuing its own digital currency – e-hryvnia, the NBU has said, with reference to the results of a pilot project in which the regulator released a limited amount of electronic hryvnia, operations using which were tested by working groups with the participation of the regulator, volunteer companies and the World Bank.
According to the results of the pilot project, the National Bank believes that e-hryvnia can be considered as an alternative to the available means and instruments of retail payments, including cash, payment orders, payment cards and electronic money. The advantages of e-hryvnia are ease of use, availability, security (redemption and payments are guaranteed by the National Bank) and the speed of payments.
The electronic hryvnia can be considered as the so called disruptive technology, since it can potentially significantly change the ecosystem of the payment market of Ukraine and redistribute the existing roles of market participants.
