Cambodia wants to resolve its dependence on the US dollar and create a modern monetary infrastructure. To do this, it is intended to offer people the use of Blockchain for public payments.
The Central Bank of Cambodia is currently conducting tests to verify the Blockchain technology in inter bank payments that expect to adopt an economic system that does not require cash management.
In April, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) partnered with Japanese technology specialist Blockchain Soramitsu, who is the developer of the Iroha platform, an intelligent contract accounting book that allows the parties to conduct transactions on a scale of 1000x With Bitcoin.
Soramitsu will work with NBC to develop a payment system for its citizens based on Blockchain and will conduct a payment testing phase in the fourth quarter of 2017, according to Chea Serey, CEO of NBC.
By using Blockchain technology , what is intended are the simplest, safest, most affordable and efficient interbank transactions to benefit users of the standard banking system. The first stage will only be developed on the basis of verifying whether the system is functional and later it is expected that the development of new applications that benefit the monetary policy of the central bank can help to create a customized system that replaces even the use of the local currency.
Cambodia lacks a modern financial infrastructure for commercial banking. To show an obvious example, ATMs are not easily found. However, almost half of Cambodians own a smartphone, and it is this favourable connectivity that causes the Cambodian Central Bank to have decided to use Blockchain Technology as the main platform to cover the financial need of a population of nearly 20 million.
"The application of Blockchain technology to the financial world is at a historic moment," said Kazumasa Miyazawa, chief operating officer of Soramitsu.
"Through our work with the National Bank of Cambodia, we can take the first step towards creating a more efficient payment infrastructure, which we expect to expand globally in the future," he added.
The ultimate goal of integrating Blockchain technology is to have a cashless monetary system that would be less costly and more transparent to the entire economy. NBC is looking for ways to become independent of the US dollar and take control of its economy. Therefore, the Blockchain technology and more specifically the Iroha Hyperrolger platform could be the solution. However, NBC is "open to exploring any platform appropriate to the situation in Cambodia" in the words of Chea Serey. This project aims to guarantee Cambodia a future without cash, an ideal that has been studied for a long time by NBC.
With this, Cambodia would become part of the list of countries whose Central Banks are exploring Blockchain technology for commercial applications. The Central Banks of China, Australia, England, Sweden and Singapore are currently trying to have digital coins issued by the Central Bank backed by Blockchain technology .So, what's going to happen in near future is optimistic although cryptocurrency market is unstable at this moment.