In 2024, the National Bank of Ukraine plans to conduct open testing of the digital currency – e-hryvnia. Anyone who wants to can join it, not only NBU employees and individual companies, as was the case in 2018.
This was reported by the press service of the NBU in Facebook
“All payment operations with e-hryvnia during the testing will take place on a single technological platform, which will be operated by the National Bank. We are currently looking for a developer of a technological solution for the implementation of a pilot project. During testing, we plan to investigate the effectiveness of the chosen technological platform and the ease of use of the e-hryvnia for payment transactions, its advantages in practice, which will help to make an informed decision about the feasibility of its large-scale issue in Ukraine“, emphasized the director of the Department of Payment Systems and Innovative Development of the National Bank of Ukraine Andrii Poddyerohin.
The second stage of e-hryvnia testing:
- Open: banks, non-bank financial institutions and their clients will be able to test the functionality of the e-hryvnia.
- A single platform: all payment transactions with e-hryvnia during testing will take place on the NBU platform.
Purpose: to investigate the effectiveness of the platform, ease of use of e-hryvnia and its advantages in practice.
How to participate in testing:
- Invitations will be sent through banks participating in the pilot project.
- The NBU is working out the details of the testing.
- The NBU will make a decision on the issue of e-hryvnia based on the results of the study. The impact of the e-hryvnia on the financial system of Ukraine will be taken into account. E-hryvnia will not replace cash or non-cash hryvnia, but will be their addition. Users themselves will choose which form of hryvnia they want to pay.
Currently, there is no final date for the introduction of the e-hryvnia in Ukraine. Earlier, the National Bank announced that this could happen no earlier than 2024. However, the Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said that the e-hryvnia may appear this year.
Fedorov noted, that he plans to be the first to be paid in digital currency. According to him, Ukraine is ready for the introduction of the e-hryvnia, and technologically everything is already set up.
Private investor, asset manager, Vasyl Matii said that the non-cash hryvnia is available only through cash transactions or through the interaction of banking systems. And digital – no.
“The digital hryvnia is a completely new means of payment that is in no way connected to the traditional banking system. For example, the emission and control of such a hryvnia is carried out entirely through the central bank and distributed thanks to the virtual bank. That is, it is fundamentally a completely different approach,” – emphasized Matiy.
It is important to understand the difference between digital and cashless hryvnia:
- Cashless hryvnia: available through cash transactions or through the interaction of banking systems.
- Digital hryvnia: independent of the banking system, issued and controlled by the central bank, distributed through a virtual bank.
The introduction of e-hryvnia can have a number of advantages:
- Increasing transparency of transactions
- Reducing the risks of fraud.
- Stimulating the development of the cashless economy.
