Estonia has dropped the plan to launch its own cryptocurrency after comments received from the national authorities, but also from the European Central Bank’s President Mario Draghi. Thus, Estcoin will further be used only by e-residents.
Estonia has dropped its crypto project that aimed to launch a national cryptocurrency within the country’s sectors. The decision to end the project was influenced by pressure from the national financial institutions. According to Siim Sikkut, Estonia’s head of IT Strategy, Estcoin will only be used by foreigners to make signatures online and “set up companies remotely“.
The project received negative reviews
Estonia’s initial plan was to associate its own cryptocurrency to the euro, the official currency of the EU. Estonia is an important player in the crypto industry and one of the most technologically advanced countries in the Baltic region. It has been working on launching its own virtual coin for a while, but the project has received numerous criticisms, such as from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, claiming the euro is the only currency to be used in the “small country“.
“No member state can introduce its own currency; the currency of the eurozone is the euro,” Draghi claimed in September 2017.
Ardo Hansson, the governor of the Central Bank, who was convinced that the Estcoin reports were “misleading“, also supported the Draghi.
All the negative opinions received from the authorities led to the cessation of the crypto project. “We agreed in discussions with politicians that Estcoin will proceed as a means for transactions inside the e-resident community. Other options aren’t on the table. We’re not building a new currency,” stated Sikkut.
The decision to suspend the project was confirmed by its author, Kaspar Korjus. He said for Bloomberg that Estcoin “would definitely not be a national ‘cryptocurrency“.
