Topic: [2017-11-05] Uruguay to Launch Digital Currency, “Not Bitcoin” it Stresses (Read 4035 times)

I agree with your sentiment.

I had to laugh especially hard at the following part of the article:

They are not even hiding that they will issue the digital Uruguayan peso at will by hinting at additional issuance rounds.
This news would be great if they would have implemented a hard cap or at least a fixed issuance schedule, which ideally
would resemble the asymptotic issuance of Bitcoins. Instead they did what CryptoBry pointed out, which will probably
cause this project to be a huge failure, which will be forgotten in next to no time.

For people here it might look boring, but if they implement it well enough for people to actually have a better overall currency experience (i.e more usability and convenience), people will definitely use it, especially the average joes there. It might sound weird for people being part of this community, but it's a given fact that not everyone cares about being operational under a fully controlling governmental system. The simple working class is perfectly fine as long as they can pay bills, buy food, do whatever they can at their budget level, etc. If they get to use something that enhances their life a bit, then they will surely see it as a worthwhile addition.

It seems that they are fooling everybody when they said “is not a cryptocurrency such as bitcoins”, so it means it is only a digital currency that will serve their nation and can be traded in the whole world eventually so the main purpose of their Government is to digitalizes their Fiat currency in able to buy goods and services online. I think it is much better for them to just stick with their local money and don't make a digital kind of it and telling that it is not a cryptocurrency because it is clearly that they are just imitating what Bitcoin is.

It is destined to be a big failure that am sure. They are issuing the digital version of their fiat money...so where is the excitement with that? It is more of the same thing. And since it is under the control of the government, then it is just another tool which the government can use to further their own agenda. So boring! But am glad that there is a country that can boldly launch their own own national cryptocurrency so that we can see if things can be good or just a ho-hum experiment.

It isn´t a surprise to nobody that the need that Uruguay has to adapt to Technologies and Social Standards is great and just growing. The Central Bank of Uruguay launched on the 3º of November a digital coin equivalent to the Uruguayan Peso. The government declared that this digital coin will be nothing a like Bitcoin or others existing altcoins, and yes, it will be entirely by the responsibility of the BCU (Central Bank of Uruguay). It is a pioneer "move" from Uruguay creating the first national coin, called E-peso. Until now just Russia considered the same thing.

They're not trying to convince us.  If anything, it would be better that we weren't convinced, because then we might give up our privacy and financial sovereignty again for limited use of the blockchain's benefit.

They're trying to convince people who live in Uruguay more than anyone else, possibly because of the notoriety that BTC has accumulated over the last five years or so.

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The article doesn't give any meaningful details about how it works and the statement is in Spanish, so it's hard to figure out what kind of actual system this is other than the fact that it's a digital version of a fiat currency.

If it runs on a "permissioned blockchain" system though (which it inevitably will, unless it's not even a digital currency at all but digital fiat like we see in most countries), it's meaningless because the government will still continue to have control over the supply and pretty much everything else that makes the blockchain important.

This is a vivid example of how the digital currency displaces conventional paper money. And in this case it is most likely about a peculiar plexus between the usual peso and digital money. Such experiments are necessary, they in any case introduce crypto currency into the everyday life of citizens demonstrate its advantages. This is a very useful experience.

There is no need to explicitly state that it won't be anything like Bitcoin, because that's already clear to most of the people in this community. It's just as ever centralized where people will still never be able to actually own anything.

It's safe to say that there is a domino effect going on with governments looking to launch their own digital currency so frequently after each other. Regardless of what they come up with, it doesn't solve the core problem.

People will more and more strive for financial freedom, and no matter what the governments are coming up with, it will not change anything in that regard. I hope they realize that by now people are done with this system.

Uruguay’s Central Bank (BCU) formally presented rollout of its pioneering digitization of the Uruguayan peso on 3 November 2017. Set now as a pilot program, the bank’s head was careful to remind it “is not a cryptocurrency such as bitcoins,” but “a currency that remains the responsibility of the BCU,” according to an Argentinian report.

Uruguay to Issue Digital Currency

In what will surely be watched by the world’s central bankers, the South American nation, stuffed between giants Brazil to its east and Argentina to its west, is acting on what until now other countries, such as Russia, have only contemplated. It announced “a six-month pilot plan for the issuance and use of digital notes of the Uruguayan peso,” in a press release.

Titled El BCU presentó un plan piloto para la emisión de billetes digitales (a pilot plan for the issuance of digital tickets), it stresses this is “a test plan with a view to evaluating whether or not it transforms into a way of doing business in the future.” The plan “consists of a test with 10,000 mobile phone users of ANTEL,” the release notes, “which will last for 6 months” and be international. Administración Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (ANTEL) is the country’s government-run telecommunications provider.

Registered users will be able to interact with merchants as well as peer-to-peer in money exchanges.
To take part, Uruguayans “must download the application for phones from the epeso.com.uy website, access the digital wallet, register and make the first charge in Red Pagos to create the digital wallet (Cash In),” the bank explains, adding, “The mechanism is available for both smartphones and non-smartphones.”
Red Pagos is a national payments and collection company.

Bold, but Treading Lightly

“The first issue of digital tickets consists of 20 million Uruguayan pesos, of which 7 million were already transferred to Red Pagos,” the bank declared.

“This is not a new currency, it is the same Uruguayan peso that instead of having a physical support has a technological support,” said the president of the Central Bank.

As for motive to why BCU is heading such an effort now, Mario Bergara, the bank’s president, stressed “It is expensive to print tickets, the distribution in the whole territory, the security for the transport of the same, and also the opacity that the physical ticket promotes.”

“Each person who has the app may have charged a cap equivalent to about $1,000, while companies will have available up to $6,600,” the Argentinian online news source details. “The electronic wallet can be charged in a collection network where physical tickets will be exchanged for electronic tickets.”

Mr. Bergara adds, if the bank decides to continue the digital currency beyond half a year, physical money will not be shut off immediately, stating “for the comfort of all citizens, the transition will take a long time.”

The country is still suffering from a regional economic downturn not that long ago that saw cash shortages, rampant inflation, bank runs, and atm caps.

Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/uruguay-first-in-the-world-to-launch-digital-currency-not-bitcoin-it-stresses/