JAPANESE FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP THINKING OF LAUNCHING ITS OWN DIGITAL CURRENCY FOR INSTANT PAYMENTS
A Japanese Financial group is attracting plans to issue its own tradeable computerized currency to be utilized for installments and moment P2P exchanges.
Japan's SBI Holdings, a noteworthy budgetary administrations amass as of now put resources into advanced monetary standards and blockchain innovation (through Ripple), is set to issue its own particular computerized money for installments. As indicated by the noticeable territorial distribution Nikkei, the monetary gathering's advanced token will likewise be tradeable for Japanese yen and will be founded on blockchain innovation.
The computerized money will empower purchasers to make installments at stores quickly and can likewise be utilized to make distributed exchanges at fundamentally brought costs contrasted down with existing techniques including charge cards and 'advanced cash' (wallet money that accept the estimation of fiat money).
SBI's computerized money will apparently keep up a steady conversion scale to the Japanese yen. SBI's representatives will start testing the computerized cash at stores close to the organization's Tokyo central station one year from now.
CREDIT CARDS ARE EXPENSIVE
Less than 70% of Japan’s supermarkets accept cards due to an expensive onboarding process wherein credit card payment terminals cost ¥100,000 (approx. $900) to install, aside from monthly fees for their lease. For all the notions of being a technology-forward society, Japan is lagging behind its Asian counterparts – particularly China and Korea – in cashless payments. Such is the disparity that Japanese authorities have set a FinTech growth strategy with the ultimate aim of doubling the adoption rate of digital payments (currently at a measly 19%) over the next decade.
SBI – Big on Bitcoin
Outstandingly, SBI has just propelled its own particular advanced cash exchanging and trade stage in 2016, making it the primary bank-supported computerized money trade. Propelled in November 2016, the SBI Virtual Currencies Co., Ltd., raised approx. 300 million yen in capital in the days preceding its foundation.
SBI's venture arm likewise drove a ¥3 billion ($27 million) financing round subsidizing round in putting into bitFlyer, Japan's biggest bitcoin trade by exchanging volume in April 2016.