The Marshall Islands SOV cryptocurrency: the saga winds down Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain

The Marshall Islands is partnering with Israeli company Neema to launch the SOV. It plans to sell some of the currency to international investors and spend the proceeds. After the initial issuance through an ICO, the number of SOV units would grow by 4 percent per year coded into the blockchain independently of the demand for the currency. Half of the revenue from the initial issuance (24 million SOVs) would be allocated to SFB Technologies and the other half to the RMI government. SFB technologies is tasked with developing and implementing the SOV and would bear all the necessary costs to issue the SOV and perform the ICO. If the Republic of the Marshall Islands’ state-sponsored cryptocurrency, the Sovereign or SOV, takes off, SFB Technologies, the software company building the coin, would become incredibly wealthy.

Excerpts from Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain

It says it will use the money to help pay for the budget, invest in projects to mitigate the effects of global warming and support those people still affected by US nuclear testing. Furthermore, El Salvador ranks 106th in the Chainalysis 2024 Global Crypto Adoption Index, reflecting relatively low cryptocurrency usage compared to other nations. This goes to show that top-down recognition of Bitcoin as legal tender is not enough for its widespread acceptance and use as a medium of exchange. Early last year, the Marshall Islands announced its plan to establish the SOV as a national cryptocurrency, making it the first country in the world to move to adopt a digital legal tender. Two will be nominated by the government and another two by SFB Technologies – the company hired by the government to develop SOV’s blockchain infrastructure. These four directors will then appoint three more from a list of nominees from “internationally recognized luminaries in the fields of blockchain, banking, and monetary management.”

Increasing regulation

When a transaction is made, the node creating the transaction broadcasts details of the transaction using encryption to other nodes throughout the node network so that the transaction (and every other transaction) is known. In 1983, American cryptographer David Chaum conceived of a type of cryptographic electronic money called ecash.1011 Later, in 1995, he implemented it through Digicash,12 an early form of cryptographic electronic payments. Digicash required user software in order to withdraw notes from a bank and designate specific encrypted keys before they could be sent to a recipient. The Marshall Islands says the SOV will require users to identify themselves, thus avoiding the anonymity that has kept bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from gaining support from governments. The government of the Marshall Islands will oversee the new digital currency and leverage the combination of Algorand’s blockchain functionality and SFB Technologies’ identity-management and compliance platform. Our money supply will grow at a sustainable 4% each year, following Milton Friedman’s k% rule.

By adopting Algorand as the backbone for its national digital currency, the Marshall Islands has demonstrated the potential of this innovative technology in transforming cross-border trade and finance. As Algorand continues to grow and attract more projects, it will undoubtedly play a significant role in the future of digital currencies and blockchain technology. The Marshall Islands adopted sfb-tech.com Algorand to power its national digital currency, SOV, as it offers faster transactions and a strong focus on achieving near-instant completion. As central banks continue to research networks to host their Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), Algorand has emerged as a viable option.

It has been chosen to host the Marshall Islands’ CBDC and announced that 16 other CBDC projects were in the works a few months ago. It is easy to get blinded by the promise of enormous revenue from a state-backed crypto-asset like the SOV especially considering impending revenue fallouts. The government conducted a comprehensive due diligence study on the SOV based on which the Parliament is considering repeal of the 2018 SOV Act.

Sovereign Currency Act of 2018

The Marshall Islands’ final judgment may be influenced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has objected to the coin since 2018 on the grounds that it may cause “economic, reputational, and governance risks.” In May, it said that those concerns still stood. The Pacific Island nation, home to about 60,000, is considering issuing it to end its decades-long reliance on the US dollar. It’s no surprise that a team of forward-thinking tech entrepreneurs would want to accomplish a feat like this. However one has to wonder why the Marshall Islands chose to go along with this plan, especially knowing how volatile the crypto market is, and how Blockchain technology is still in its early stages and struggling with scalability issues. The Marshall Islands, a tiny nation in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, approved a bill to develop its own cryptocurrency called Sovereign (SOV) in partnership with Israeli Tech Company Neema.