Author: Kristo

Can money exist without a banking system? “Sure,” say the bitcoin enthusiasts. But can we have the same kind of money that we’re used to – euros, dollars, yenis? The invention of smart contracts makes it a practical opportunity.

We are half-way through building a proof of concept for a tech savvy country to run a bankless monetary system in parallel with the traditional one. A few friends put together the infrastructure using Estonian ID system over a weekend, we’re now planning for a second iteration and you’re welcome to join if you believe you can help.

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Card payments above £250 got more expensive in the UK today. Visa, who operates 98% of the debit cards in the country raised the fees paid to the banks who give us these bits of plastic. Why?

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We’re ready to evolve money to its new form. A digital form based on a public blockchain. When successful, it will open a new dimension of possibilities how technology can be used  to interact with money in our everyday lives. This makeathon is a start. Read More

Two years ago I got very excited by the idea that it will be possible to decentralise the handling of money in my small country Estonia. I’m not talking about geeky bitcoins, but the real Euros. I wrote this blogpost, chatted with bitcoin people this and the other side of the Atlantic. At the time it certainly felt do-able, but needed quite a bit of technical and cryptographic wizardry.

Now we have the Ethereum programmable blockchain. It took me a couple of hours on a Saturday morning to successfully implement a central mint and a monetary system using a public recipe, together with necessary enforcement controls to tackle money laundering and other bad things.

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