After Russia (in October 2017), Venezuela (January 2018) and Iran (February 2018), Marshall Islands has became the fourth state, which declared loudly its intention to issue the government-backed "crypto-currency". Obviously, as in all preceding cases, this new attempt to centralize the decentralized digital Store-of-Value-Unit-of-Account-and-Medium-of-Exchange will only add more confusion to already disorientated crypto-market.
Obviously, needed lessons haven't been learned from Nicolas Maduro's experiment with "petro", which, after purportedly raising more than $730 million from the unknown number of international crypto-investors, has been successively outlawed, first, by Venezuelan parliament and, then, by the White House administration. Not to mention, of course, that Russian CryptoRuble and Iranian Post Bank's crypto-coin have until now remained pure declarations.
Whether or not Marshallese Sovereign (SOV) will follow suit is yet to be seen. However, as crypto continues to gain prominence among mainstream bankers and politicians, similar in nature attempts undertaken by adventurous state bureaucrats to make a very quick buck will not stop to amaze all of us by its lack of basic economic considerations.
Business Notes for Startups Founders:
political climate: friendly;
economic climate: moderately friendly;
regions to focus: Oceania, USA, globally;
industries to focus: Fintech;
major limitations: geographical isolation, small population, absence of seed and VC capitals, low Internet penetration;
opportunities: economic closeness to USA, low costs, financial industry expertise.
Cryptocurrencies and ICOs (outlook): legal status is not defined (moderately positive).
The author: Svyatoslav (Svet) Sedov
Angel investor and founder of The First International Incubator for Silicon Valley Companies (FirstInternational.In) in the Bay Area, CA, USA.
To the question in your title, my Magic 8-Ball says:
Hi! I'm a bot, and this answer was posted automatically. Check this post out for more information.