The Ukraine Ministry of Digital Transformation with the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation (MoU). This agrees both will work on the development of a strategy for virtual assets in Ukraine. According to the MoU, they will work to develop a modern virtual asset market infrastructure, including work on a Central bank Digital Currency (CDBC). The objective is to enhance Ukraine’s status as a centre of digital innovation in financial markets in Eastern Europe.
“The Ministry of Digital Transformation is working on creating the legal environment for the development of virtual assets in Ukraine. We believe our cooperation with the Stellar Development Foundation will contribute to development of the virtual asset industry and its integration into the global financial ecosystem,” said Oleksandr Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for IT Development.
“Another important aspect of this cooperation is contributing to the development of the infrastructure for a Ukrainian national digital currency. Most of the world’s leading countries are developing their own national digital currencies. The National Bank of Ukraine has been researching the possibility of CBDC implementation since 2017. It demonstrates Ukraine’s movement towards one of major financial trends. At the Ministry, we aspire to ensure our country’s adaptation to technological innovations and competitiveness in the financial market in Eastern Europe.”
What the MoU covers
The memorandum outlines the core focus of the partnership as follows:
- cooperation on the development of the virtual assets market in Ukraine
- provision of support to projects related to virtual assets
- implementation and regulation of stablecoin circulation in Ukraine
- facilitation of the development of the digital currency of the Central Bank in Ukraine.
The SDF will officially launch its activity with Ukraine in January, 2021. “We believe digital assets and national digital currencies are one of the most important innovations of our lifetimes and we are excited to play a role in the creation of Ukraine’s digital asset infrastructure,” said Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director, Stellar Development Foundation.
“Through the leadership of the Ministry, Ukraine has demonstrated its commitment to fostering an environment of innovation for the digital economy. We look forward to working with the Ministry and other stakeholders to digitize the hryvnia, to bring Stellar-based tools and services to the people and businesses of Ukraine, and to introduce new partnership opportunities in Ukraine to businesses in the Stellar ecosystem.”
Stellar and the SDF
Stellar describes itself as offering a decentralised, scalable and sustainable network for financial products and services. Designed to connect the world’s financial infrastructure, its technology is both a:
- cross-currency transaction system
- platform for digital asset issuance.
Today many financial institutions worldwide issue assets and settle payments on the Stellar network. This currently claims to have >4.5M accounts open.
The Stellar Development Foundation is a non-profit organisation which that supports the development and growth of Stellar. Stellar is an open-source blockchain-based network focused on connecting financial infrastructure. Founded in 2014, the SDF supports:
- the maintenance of the Stellar codebase
- the technical and business communities building on the network.
Among the tools that Stellar offers are:
- an Account Viewer (for checking an account and sending basic payments)
- Laboratory (where developers can compose complex transactions and explore Stellar operations)
- StellarX (the Stellar decentralised exchange).
- Kelp (an open-source trading bot)
- Transaction Explorer (for, no surprise, explore transactions and network activity)
- Node Explorer (for enabling views of network nodes on Stellarbeat and visualising consensus).
Enterprise Times: what does this mean
Central Bank Digital Currencies attracted much attention in 2020 (for example, Banque de France, Mastercard, the Digital Yuan, etc). 2021 looks as if it will see an acceleration in interest.
This Ukraine/Stellar initiative will exploit the latter’s additional activities as a voice to regulators and institutions (presumably, the appeal for the Ukraine Ministry of Digital Transformation). What, perhaps, makes this more intriguing is that Ukraine is not noted for its financial transparency or lack of corruption. Might the work with Stellar make a difference?
