Enjoying dubious popularity, virtual currencies failed to win favor with financial regulators in some countries. However, officials in other countries recognize that digital money can be used for legitimate financial services. This idea found active supporters in Normandy, the region in Northern France. The regional authorities are keen to introduce a local cryptocurrency. They expect to roll out the prototype until 2018. Developers say the new cryptocurrency will be freely convertible into other local monetary units.
The project is supervised personally by Hervé Morin, the President of the regional council. He wants to make sure that the project is implemented on schedule. The policymaker is certain this is a worthy cause that perfectly fits with the strategy of the region’s sustainable development and will boost local business. Interestingly, Normandy is not the first France’s region that is ready to introduce its own virtual currency. Nowadays, over 40 local legitimate currencies are being used in different parts of the country. For example, the SoNantes was launched across the whole community of Nantes last year. The esko from the Basque country in Northern Spain can be also added to the list of local cryptocurrencies. It was put into circulation in 2010.
To sum up, the bitcoin is acknowledged as being the most popular and successful cryptocurrency at present. No wonder it attracted the attention of monetary authorities worldwide. Some of them imposed a ban on bitcoin transactions warning of a penalty. Currently, nearly 15.5 million bitcoin units are in circulation.
