Ripple and the State of Palau team up to create a national stablecoin

The island state of Palau and the cryptocurrency company Ripple Labs announced the start of a joint project to create a state digital stable currency. President of Palau Surangel C. Whipps (Surangel S. Whipps said in an interview with Bloomberg that a joint IT team from the island nation and Ripple Labs are working to explore opportunities to create a “national stablecoin.” Discussing digital asset strategy, the president of the archipelago of more than 500 islands, explained that such a small country should strive to diversify its economy and “take full advantage of new technologies.” “Palau, in collaboration with Ripple, hopes to launch a national stablecoin in the very near future. This will help make domestic payments simple and secure,” Whipps said. The head of state clarified that the creation of a stablecoin backed by the US dollar is tantamount to the creation of the Central Bank's own digital currency. The official currency of Palau is the US dollar, while the country does not have its own Central Bank. In January, the small Pacific nation of Palau announced a partnership with Cryptic Labs to launch the Root Name System (RNS), a blockchain-based “digital residency” system.