Cash is rapidly disappearing in Sweden, with the supply of the Swedish krona (SEK) declining to 1% of Sweden’s gross domestic product (GDP). Businesses are now allowed to refuse cash, since it is used so little in society, giving private payment apps like Swish a monopoly over the payment market in Sweden.
It has been speculated that to prevent the complete privatization of money in Sweden, a cryptocurrency is needed, which would probably be called the e-Krona.
According to data from 2010-2018, the circulating supply of cash in Sweden has declined from SEK 95 billion to SEK 55 billion. This suggests that the government has turned off the printing press and is burning physical cash out of circulation. Further, the legislator of Sweden has allowed banks and businesses to simply refuse cash, moving the entire society away from cash and towards digital currency.
If cash completely disappears in Sweden, then it would no longer be possible for people to buy goods or services without going through a third-party payment network. This subjects the citizens of Sweden to payment reverses, payment freezes, and fees for using their own money. Further, Swedish citizens will be forced to go through know your customer (KYC) policies, threatening privacy when paying in Sweden. Perhaps the most important downside is that Swedish citizens will no longer have total control of their own money.
This can be solved in two ways. Firstly, the citizens of Sweden who still want to use cash can simply adopt USD or EUR, but this would not work well for going to restaurants or other local businesses. The more optimal solution is a native cryptocurrency of Sweden, the e-Krona. Any businesses that accept digital payments of SEK in Sweden can easily be equipped to accept e-Krona.
The difference between the e-Krona and a typical digital SEK payment is that citizens would have full control of their e-Krona via the private key, and do not have to worry about payment reversals, freezes, or fees. An e-Krona would be particularly useful for merchants in Sweden, since at this point, as cash disappears, they are at risk of receiving chargebacks on any sale they make.
Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter: @bitcoinnewscom
Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com: https://t.me/bconews
Want to advertise or get published on BitcoinNews.com? – View our Media Kit PDF here.
Image Courtesy: Pixabay
