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- CBDC leader of Europe will issue its own digital e-Krona tokens within the next five years
- Currently, the central bank digital currency is in the first stage of the pilot program
- Riksbank has plans to get market participants to try out the CBDC system
CBDC or the central bank digital currency are getting researched by many countries globally. Similar to Riksbank, the Swedish Central Bank has also given a concrete outlook on when such currency will get issued. The country has named the currency as e-Krona and is expecting to issue that within five years. According to the central bank’s governor Stevan Ingves, the concept of a CBDC seems set to enter a new post-crash era.
Swedish CBDC is in the first stage of the pilot program
Last year in February, Riksbank of Sweden announced the pivot program of e-Krona, which was scheduled for February 2021. Recently it was announced by the bank that the pilot program will not be completed by the following year and might continue until 2026.
According to Anna Breman, the central bank deputy governor, e-Krona has recently rolled out new policies like helicopter money and negative interest rates. Also, the project is now in the first stage of a pilot program. Also, to get confirmation regarding the authenticity of e-Krona, Riksbank issues the tokens and supplies them to banks and payment service providers.
What will the second phase of the program focus on?
It is expected that the second phase of the e-Krona pilot program will focus on how the internal systems of various participating entities can integrate with the test network. The bank has also planned to get market participants to try out the system. Also, Riksbank will implement an offline solution to store the tokens and their keys to test the potential limitations. On the other side, the central bank will investigate and verify related matters to achieve adequate performance and scalability for retail payments.
Although Sweden is the official member of the European Union, it has denied adopting the euro. Instead of the euro, the country owns Krona, and it is also observed that the digital payments system of the government is also very active. Hence, the issue of e-Krona in the country will make it a leader in the CBDC field in the continent.
