Cambodia plans national cryptocurrency

CAMBODIA plans to develop its own national cryptocurrency after being inspired by the launch of the Venezuelan Petro in February.

The Cambodian crypto project would be named Entapay and is expected to be proposed at a blockchain summit of South East Asian nations in its capital, Phnom Penh, today.

A press release issued ahead of the summit described Entapay as “the connection between integration payment of encrypted currency and the real world. It has the great potential to even replace Visa as the new mainstream payment mode”. It also referenced the creation of the Petro as a means to “assist the country in avoiding the Western world’s economic sanctions”.

Plans for Venezuela’s home-grown digital currency, backed by the government’s oil and natural resources, were first announced by Nicolas Maduro, the president, in December, as a means to supplement the country’s plummeting bolívar fuerte.

Mr Maduro’s critics believe the move is designed to bypass US sanctions intended to pressurise a regime that has overseen food shortages and hyperinflation. Venezuela has now joined Russia, Iran and North Korea in being accused of seeking to exploit cryptocurrencies, which offer a new kind of financial infrastructure outside of the control of any central authority.

Experts have warned that a cryptocurrency, with its anonymity, loose regulations and ability to be converted into hard currency, can be used to circumvent economic sanctions, which are usually enforced through regulatory and banking disclosure rules.

A cryptocurrency may be attractive for Hun Sen, the Cambodian prime minister, who faces the threat of international sanctions over his government’s crackdown on the political opposition, media and rights activists.