A new law says that the government of the Caribbean island could accept native Tron tokens like TRX and USDT for public payments like taxes.
A news release from Oct. 7 says that blockchain network Tron has made a deal with the government of Dominica to issue a national fan token to promote the Caribbean island’s history and tourism.
Under the deal, the island nation’s “designated national blockchain infrastructure” is the Tron protocol. An ordinance from the same day shows that the native digital tokens of the Tron network were given “statutory status.” This means that the tokens can now be used as a currency in the country.
The order says that the government can accept Tron governance tokens like TRX, BTT, and JST, as well as stablecoins tied to the U.S. dollar on Tron’s TRC20 protocol, like USDT and USDD, as payment for public services and taxes. Private businesses can also accept these cryptocurrencies as payment “where the infrastructure for transactions is in place.”
With the approval, The cryptocurrency platform is also planning to release Dominica Coin (DMC), a blockchain-based fan token that the government says will “help promote Dominica’s global fame for its natural heritage and tourism attractions.”
It’s not clear why Tron was chosen for the job, but Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said in a press release that the “open and cost-effective” nature of the protocol will help “better integrate Small Island Developing States like Dominica into the global economy in the future.”
Last year, Justin Sun, who created Tron, gave up his job as CEO to become Grenada’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization. At the time, he said that he would work on making crypto more accepted in Latin American countries.
In Dominica, the exchange rates between its native tokens and the market will set the East Caribbean dollar (XCD), and there will be no capital gains tax on trades between the tokens and the XCD.
A newsletter has asked the government of Dominica and Tron for their thoughts.