“As technological advancements have connected people globally, the payments industry has provided them with better, digital ways to transact. If we think of digital transaction platforms as a system of pipes, then mobile has added the last miles of these pipes, and the internet is reaching people at the farthest corners of the world. But as this digital revolution has been taking place, the issuance of currency has essentially remained the same,” said Jonathan Dharmapalan, founder and CEO of eCM. “What eCurrency will enable central banks to do is to issue a single, safe digital currency instrument running through these pipes, making the entire system more secure, transparent, efficient, and more importantly, trustworthy, now backed by the country’s central bank.”

eCurrency also delivers major savings to governments and taxpayers: the cost of minting and distributing eCurrency is around one-tenth of the cost of printing, securing, distributing, and eventually destroying paper-based money. The solution, designed to work seamlessly across all existing payments systems without the need to change current infrastructure, has been developed based on feedback received through direct engagement with 30 central banks, successfully piloted in multiple countries, and can be customized to comply with nation-specific security and regulatory frameworks.

How it works

Once the technology is acquired by a country’s central bank, eCurrency can only be minted by the central bank in an offline process. Each unit of eCurrency consists of a “cryptocomplex”: a self-contained security instrument made up of many layers of security technology uniquely bound together to ensure eCurrency cannot be counterfeited or compromised. After deployment, eCurrency’s security features can be updated real-time, in order to stay ahead of counterfeiting threats.

Once each unit of eCurrency has been created by the central bank, it is transported in digital form within a secure storage device to payments systems, such as banks and other financial providers, using the same existing delivery mechanisms available today for notes and coins. Those institutions then load eCurrency into their systems, making it available publicly for transacting.

Because each unit of eCurrency is equipped with a self-aware, unique identifier, the central bank can monitor the movement of eCurrency through payments systems in near real-time and continuously add up the money supply to ensure that the amount issued is the same as the amount in circulation at all times.

Economic benefits

There is a large body of evidence indicating that shifting to digital transactions boosts economic growth. A Moody’s study shows that electronic payments added US$983 billion or 0.17 percentage points annually to economic growth across 51 countries—accounting for 93 percent of global GDP between 2008 and 2012. The study found this was the equivalent of creating 1.2 million additional jobs. During that period, the report estimates electronic payments added 0.8 percent to GDP in developing economies and 0.3 percent to GDP in developed economies (i).

A research study by Citigroup and Imperial College estimates that 10 percent growth in the adoption of digital money across 90 countries will bring 220 million more people into the formal financial sector, add US$1 trillion of new flows in the formal economy, and lead to US$150 billion of additional consumer spending and US$100 billion more in tax collections(ii). eCurrency can help accelerate the migration from paper-based transactions to digital transactions, solving issues currently hampering its growth, such as payments systems interoperability.

Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of Omidyar Network.

About Omidyar Network

Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, the organization invests in and helps scale innovative organizations to catalyze economic and social change. Omidyar Network has committed more than US$879 million to for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual participation across multiple initiatives, including Consumer Internet & Mobile, Education, Financial Inclusion, Governance & Citizen Engagement, and Property Rights. To learn more, visit www.omidyar.com, and follow on Twitter @omidyarnetwork #PositiveReturns.

About eCurrency Mint

eCurrency Mint Limited (eCM) is the technology company that has pioneered the world’s first end-to-end solution that enables central banks to securely and efficiently issue digital fiat currency to operate alongside notes and coins. eCM is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, with R&D facilities in Silicon Valley, California. The company combines hardware, software and cryptographic security protocols to provide central banks the tools they need to preserve their charter and doctrine as the sole issuer of the national currency in an increasingly digital economy. By enabling more secure and efficient digital transactions, eCurrency supports the huge economic opportunities presented by the global shift to digital payments, including increased transaction efficiency, financial inclusion, and economic growth.