Busan, South Korea, Dublin, Ohio are Creating Their Own Cryptocurrencies

In less than 24 hours, news about two different cryptocurrencies supported by two different local governments have emerged.

The second most populous city in South Korea – Busan – might be launching its own stablecoin soon. The project will be a collaboration with BNK Busan Bank and is currently in an early stage. At present, there still is regulatory uncertainty, however, the city of Busan is competing with the Jeju province for the opportunity to become a blockchain regulation-free zone. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups has been hinting towards a progressive business-friendly stance, stating:

“The government will provide extensive support if Busan develops its own blockchain-based currency structure or token economy.”

Busan’s ambitions of becoming a blockchain mecca while moving to a crypto economy are extremely encouraging, and despite the fiat-backed nature of the new cryptoasset, it is a giant leap forward towards the future of finance.

In the meantime, a smaller-scale local-government-backed project has also been announced. Dublin, a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, might become home to another local-government-supported crypto token.

Perhaps its most interesting characteristic feature is that, unlike practically all other government-supported cryptocurrencies, it will not be fiat-backed. Instead, merchants who accept it would assign its value – and while scepticism is warranted, its creators from Software Verde have boldly announced that those vendors are by no means small-scale or insignificant. In an interview with CoinSpice, Joshua Green from Software Verde stated:

“Every enterprise was very positive about the idea of integrating in one way or another, and many of the companies are huge players that everyone has heard about, so we’re personally pretty excited.”

Another interesting feature is that the token will be based on a public blockchain – and more specifically the Bitcoin Cash blockchain. Software Verde is one of the companies that are building client implementations for the Bitcoin Cash protocol, and they have just been added to the list of beneficiaries of the Bitcoin Cash development fund.

The stated reason for the decision to go with BCH instead of Ethereum, for example, is the the fact that the project’s strategy is heavily reliant on low transaction fees. The initial $0.10 that users would receive upon registering their digital identity with the city of Dublin would be sufficient for at least 50 transactions – which is impossible for ERC20 or OMNI tokens.