By KYIV. Nov 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has submitted for discussion to banks, non-banking financial institutions and the virtual asset market a draft concept of the e-hryvnia, the digital currency of the National Bank, the press service of the regulator reported.
"The development and implementation of the e-hryvnia can be the next step in the evolution of the payment infrastructure of Ukraine, will contribute to the digitalization of the economy, the further spread of cashless payments, reduce their cost, increase their transparency and increase confidence in the national currency as a whole," NBU deputy head Oleksiy Shaban said.
During the discussion, the National Bank also presented a possible e-hryvnia design, its architecture, characteristics and benefits for payment service providers, in particular, the use of a technological platform for instant e-hryvnia settlements.
It is indicated that when creating the draft e-hryvnia concept, the regulator took into account the results of a survey of financial market experts regarding the demand for e-hryvnia (since 2021), global experience in developing digital currencies of central banks and their own research.
The National Bank is considering and working on a number of possible options for using the e-hryvnia, on which its design and main characteristics will depend.
Thus, among the options is e-hryvnia for retail non-cash payments with the possible functionality of "programmed" money: to make targeted social payments, reduce government spending on administration and control of the intended use of funds, as well as the use of smart contract technology for programming a variety of payment logic depending on the onset of certain circumstances and facts.
Also, e-hryvnia can be used in the area related to the turnover of virtual assets. For example, for exchange, provision of issuance and other operations with virtual assets.
In addition, one option is to use e-hryvnia to make cross-border payments faster, cheaper and more transparent.
The National Bank continues to work on the draft e-hryvnia concept with the participants of the payment market, as well as the virtual assets market and government agencies.
