Following earlier news by an official which stated that the new bill will allow salaries payment in crypto, paying ministry employees in e-hryvnia could be a suitable first pilot for the central bank digital currency.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation, Mikhail Fedorov, has unveiled a possible early use case for the country’s planned central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The minister highlighted considerations inside the ministry to test the CBDC by employing the electronic money in staff salary payments in a recent interview broadcast by Ukrainian media outlet TSN:
“Frankly as one of the first pilots, we have on the table the question of paying salaries to employees of the Ministry of Digital Transformation in electronic hryvnia.”
Fedorov made these remarks while saying that the e-initial hryvnia’s rollout should focus on a small, restricted use case rather than being used for social payments.
Fedorov believes that the CBDC needs to be put to the test in order to prevent its misuse, which is why he proposes staff wage payments as a realistic trial plan for the national digital currency.
Following the ratification of a new payment services law by the country’s government, Ukraine’s central bank got a license to launch a digital currency.
Over the last few years, the National Bank of Ukraine has been working on developing and releasing a digital currency. The Ministry of Digital Transformation is also involved in the CBDC arena, having worked with the Stellar Development Foundation to build a joint CBDC and digital asset strategy.
CBDCs are frequently used to pay government employees as a trial implementation strategy for national digital currency projects.
Indeed, numerous projects have chosen to pay state staff in the CBDC, one of the few sovereign digital currencies now in circulation.
China, one of the world’s major CBDC countries, unveiled a blockchain-based system for digital yuan wage payments in June.
