Switzerland recently held a referendum to vote on several issues. One of them was to reform the country's monetary system. The aim was to create an economic system similar to bitcoin.
However, it did not get a lot of positive feedback and got only 25% of the vote.
That is still a sizable amount as nearly 500,000 people voted in favor of implementing a new financial system.
The idea behind the reform is the Sovereign Money Initiative. It would have barred commercial banks from creating money electronically if they lent beyond their currency deposit. This is the main way that much of world's money is created nowadays, by using debt to generate revenue.
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However, Bitcoin and its blockchain technology have presented the world with an alternative to the debt-based finance industry. That being said, the bitcoin based financial system has been met with quite a bit of doubt, skepticism and fear. Some of the top financial investors and business tycoons such as Warren Buffet have been very skeptical about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
Switzerland Still Open To Possibility Of Crypto Based System
In a statement, Emma Dawnay, one of those who proposed the Sovereign Money Initiative, said
Cryptocurrency and the blockchain does look like where we're heading. It could have been used under the system we were proposing. Blockchain technology could be how the Swiss government could try to bring debt free new money into the economy. Despite the vote losing the Swiss central bank is looking at similar things
The Swiss central bank does acknowledge that blockchain technology is the wave of the future. It has already started looking into it to further improve its operations, especially by using a distributed ledger.
However, Thomas Jordan, the president of the Swiss National Bank, feels that the initiative would have been a very dangerous experiment for the country.
The support for blockchain tech in Switzerland is not wavering though. The city of Zug is planning to use blockchain to power its upcoming municipal vote. It is no surprise since the area around Zug is better known as the “Crypto Valley“, where a lot of cryptocurrency and blockchain tech sees development. In 2016, some municipal services in the region could be paid with bitcoin.
The people behind the vote and the Sovereign Money Initiative are not giving up and hope to campaign and educate people further on their planned financial reforms.
