Cambodia aims to wean off US dollar dependence with digital currency

[geovalin]

Southeast Asian country's 'Bakong' users grow amid COVID-driven digital shift

TOKYO -- Central banks across the world are rushing to develop their own digital currencies in a bid to provide safe and convenient payment systems as digitalization rapidly expands to many segments of the economy.

 

China has been testing its digital yuan in multiple cities while the European Central Bank announced last month plans to proceed with its digital euro project and launch a two-year investigation that will look into the development and impacts of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

 

While over 60 central banks are exploring the possibilities of a CBDC, it is Cambodia that so far leads the race.

 

read more https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Markets/Currencies/Cambodia-aims-to-wean-off-US-dollar-dependence-with-digital-currency

[Kerryd]

LoL.
I'm sure they see the value in people giving up hard currency, backed up by the gov't, for "virtual" money that can disappear with a simple mouse click. 

If the banks/gov'ts guarantee the digital currency the way they do with hard cash, that would be one thing. Then again, placing your trust in any 3rd world gov't or the banks in that country is a gamble as well.

But I seriously doubt they'll be able to make such a currency without the gov'ts demanding (and legislating) that it be "traceable" and fall under the same currency regulations that regular "hard cash" does.

Which would defeat the whole purpose of the currency. As it was meant to be used to circumvent gov't rules (and allow people to send unlimited quantities of money anywhere, anytime, without the gov'ts being able to trace it, tax it or regulate it).

 
It was literally created to help drug dealers move their cash without it being tracked back to them. (Note that the person who invented BitCoin is still anonymous. He is named as "Satoshi Nakamoto" but no one has been able to trace down who he really is. Some have claimed to be him and people identified as most likely to be him have denied it.)
There is a lot of concern because he apparently owns about $60 billion worth of the currency and could cause massive problems if he decided to dump his stake. (Basically he could single-handedly crash the market. A couple of times.)

Bitcoin is also used by people to avoid paying taxes on things like salaries and the sales of things that would normally be taxed. Sell your house to someone for 10 Bitcoins but on the transfer paperwork say it was only for $9,500. Cash in the coin and put $370,000 in your pocket. (Which, if you're smart, you wouldn't do all at once or even in the same bank. The Revenue Agencies watch for things like large denomination transactions without supporting paperwork).

Lol - supposedly the first Bitcoin transaction was in 2010 when someone paid 10,000 BitCoins for 2 Papa Johns Pizzas ! Can you imagine ? BitCoin is currently valued at over $38,000 US each right now !

I still giggle (a little) whenever I see a story about someone "stealing" a massive amount of "coins" and they literally have no idea who it is or where the coins have gone, so there is no way to catch the thief and the victims are screwed.

Suddenly, keeping my "visa money" in a fixed term account in Thailand doesn't seem that risky at all !

[D M G]

Cambodia is pro-China (which means anti-US)

 

Been to Sihanoukville lately?

[Scott Tracy]

Can you get it as cash from an ATM?

[Sametboy2019]

7 minutes ago, Scott Tracy said:

Can you get it as cash from an ATM?

It's called digital for a reason

[ThaiFelix]

They want to be careful, Gadaffi wanted to get away from the US dollar and look what happened to him.

[lkn]

6 hours ago, Kerryd said:

I'm sure they see the value in people giving up hard currency, backed up by the gov't, for "virtual" money that can disappear with a simple mouse click. 

The article mentions that this new “digital currency” indirectly reaches 5.9 M through (existing) mobile banking apps, that it can be used to pay for items in stores, and that there were already 1.4 M transactions in first half of 2021.

 

It also mentions that Cambodia has/had a fragmented payment system, and that payment can be “settled” in either Cambodian riel or USD.

 

So to me, this just sounds like they have introduced something akin to Venmo, Alipay, PayPal, TrueMoney, etc.

 

And googling Bakong I found this description, that seems to match: “Bakong Payment Service is a retail pay system which is allowed all customers to make cash transactions across or within member banks and financial institutions of Bakong. Bakong system is initiated by the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC).”

 

I think they are just throwing in “blockchain company” and “digital currency” to be trendy, but they are really just catching up to what most countries already have.

[Kerryd]

With Cambodia being so heavily in China's pocket now and the news about China's new digital currency (and Cambodia suddenly wanting to drop the US $) it seems they are probably going to at least try to go digital all the way, though it won't be a quick or painless transition I suspect.

If that's what China wants, I doubt Cambodia is going to say no.

[MrJ2U]

13 hours ago, ThaiFelix said:

They want to be careful, Gadaffi wanted to get away from the US dollar and look what happened to him.

That nutcase was one of those Arab Spring casualties.

[elgenon]

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