During a Panel: Web 3.0, Metaverse and the future of blockchain, Palau's president, Surangel Whipps Jr., answered a few questions from Joanna Ossinger, Senior Reporter for Crypto at Bloomberg News. The interview took place in an online format, as the president was in Hawaii, where a Conference of Pacific Island Leaders was being held.
The president said that Palau does not have its own central bank and official currency, so the islands use the US dollar (which is probably why the national stablecoin will be pegged to the dollar). The President assumes that the launch of the stablecoin together with Ripple will have a positive impact on the digital economy of the state, as well as become the digital currency of the central bank.
”Palau itself, we don't have a Central bank that's established, we use US dollars as an official currency. In developing our collaboration with Ripple, our goal is to have a USD-backed stablecoin, which is really a step toward our own Central Bank Digital Currency, you could say.” - said Palau's president.
The President also said that he had spoken with a representative of Binance. During the meeting with Changpeng Zhao and Surangel Whipps Jr. they discussed the introduction of Binance Pay into the Palau economic system. Technology should help to make digital payments to both digital residents of the state and to make settlements at the local level. It is worth saying that meetings with Changping Zhao from Binance are quite periodic. For example, we have already written about CZ's visit to Palau in June this year.
📢 Digital residency is a program that was launched by the Government of Palau in early 2022. The program works as follows: anyone can get an identity card in the blockchain, which automatically gives the status of a resident of Palau. Digital residents, regardless of their actual location, fall under the jurisdiction of Palau, which gives businessmen the opportunity to conduct business in the jurisdiction of Palau. Residents can also receive a postal address and a digital signature.
Palau is not the first state to launch a digital residence program. In 2014, Estonia gave citizens from all over the world the opportunity to become a digital resident. By 2022, the number of digital residents, according to the official website, has already exceeded 90 thousand people. Since digital residents pay taxes and are fully subject to the jurisdiction of the state, Palau can seriously develop the credit of its digital residents if their program is as successful as in Estonia.
Surangel Whipps Jr. said that Binance is not the only giant who is happy to cooperate with the island state. Recently, there was a meeting between the president and a world-famous representative of the crypto community. The President spoke with Vitalik Buterin in the format of an online meeting, they discussed the possibility of launching the R&S ID ecosystem.
Despite the fact that the population of Palau is only 20 thousand people, the president is actively developing the digital economy on the islands, attracting residents and specialists from all over the world. The small size of the state, is considered as an advantage by the president:
“One of the advantages that we have is we're small and hopefully we can mobilize our government and be more adaptive to the changes that need to be made in this fast-changing environment. At the core of our strategy and digital asset strategy, Palau is essentially a combination of initiatives really to grow the size of our visit digital participants to diversify our economy into FinTech and to attract talents from around the world, to form partnerships and to open our ecosystem to builders and entrepreneurs.” - said Surangel Whipps Jr.
Let's hope that the digital economy of Palau will flourish, and the launch of its own stablecoin and cooperation with global companies will only accelerate this process. And we will continue our observations and report on the news!
