South Korea’s capital, Seoul, may become one of the world’s largest cities to officially adopt its own cryptocurrency.
The proposal to create the “S-coin” was revealed by Park Won-soon, the city’s mayor, who said it could be used as a payment mechanism to fund public welfare programmes or to pay private contractors.
“Seoul is one of the cities that are leading the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” Mr Park told CoinDesk Korea, according to a translation in the Korea Times. “So it’s natural to study and invest in new technologies such as blockchain.”
Mr Park, who will stand for re-election in June, said the cryptocurrency, if launched, could also be used as a payment tool in city-funded welfare programmes for young jobseekers and environmental protection, and when paying for construction projects.
He said the city would release a regulatory guideline, along with a “blockchain master plan” by the end of April.
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The mayor also intends to start a public fund to advance blockchain technology and nurture related tech start-ups.
If the plan goes ahead, Seoul, with a population of 25 million in its wider metropolitan area, would be the largest city to employ its own cryptocurrency.
However, other global cities may beat Seoul off the starting block. According to ccn.com, Dubai is reportedly developing a digital currency called “emCash” that would be legal tender for both public and private debts.
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Berkeley in California has also mulled the use of cryptocurrencies to tokenize municipal bonds.
The Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean has passed legislation that will see the island nation launch its own digital currency to phase out reliance on the US dollar.
Other countries are also coming on board, although reportedly for more circumspect reasons. Venezuela, Russia and Iran have all been accused of planning to use cryptocurrencies to evade international economic sanctions.
Venezuela’s launch of the “Petro”, an oil-backed cryptocurrency, has already been denounced as a fraud by rating sites, who say the project is missing critical information.