Sweden Central Bank Pushes for Clarification of Legal Tender, Set to User in the Bitcoin Crypto Era

According to an article by the Financial Post “cash is almost extinct” in Sweden due to the country’s efforts to become a cashless society. Recently, Sweden’s Central Bank, also known as Riksbank, released a statement requesting clarification on legal tender.

The statement, originally in Swedish, seems to read in English

“The general public no longer having access to any form of central bank money can make it more difficult for the Riksbank to promote a safe and efficient payment system in Sweden, not just in times of crisis and war but also in peacetime,”

the central bank, known as Riksbank, said.

The country seems to be making the move to digital money, in the form of credit cards and debit cards. However, there are many that are finding it difficult to cope, especially when they do not have access to a mobile phone or bank card. There are also concerns about what would happen if the digital payment system crashed.

There are also those who surmise that the Riksbank is possibly coming out with its own digital currency. According to News BTC, there are two possible ways that the bank has identified that it could work. The first is based on value and the other is based on a register system. The former

“would be more like cash is at present, with value stored on an app or card rather than in a central database.”

The latter option’s register-based system means that the e-krona would be stored on centrally registered accounts. Economic analyst James Pomeroy notes in the article that the second option is

“… more complex, but may make the framework easier to expand and develop over time, and would likely require the use of blockchain technology.”