Ukraine Leverages Stellar Blockchain For Digital Hryvnia Pilot

Tascombank — one of Ukraine's oldest banks — is piloting a digital version of the local fiat currency based on the Stellar XLM/USD blockchain.

What Happened: Tascombank is testing a stablecoin backed by the Ukrainian hryvnia in partnership with financial technology firm Bitt, according to a Tuesday announcement.

The project is supervised by the National Bank of Ukraine and supported by the Ministry of Digital Transformation.

The ministry's deputy minister Oleksandr Bornyakov said the project will build the "basis for the issuance of electronic money" and constitutes the “next key step to advance innovation of payment and financial infrastructure in Ukraine.”

Stellar Development Foundation CEO told Cointelegraph the stablecoin "will be privately issued e-money on blockchain technology, built under Ukraine’s current e-money legislation."

The pilot program is meant to test the issuance of digital money on a public blockchain and Tascombank is responsible for both building and testing the stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain in order to integrate it with Bitt's transaction network dubbed Digital Currency Management System (DCMS).

Bitt CEO Brian Popelka said that DCMS will provide the bank with all "the technology required to securely mint, store, issue, distribute, and redeem the electronic hryvnia."