January 18, 2022
A high-intensity civil war is looming in Myanmar as the country’s pro-democracy group ‘National Unity Government’ (NUG) and Myanmar’s military (the Tatmadaw) are caught in a clash.
Recently the pro-democracy group has made a public announcement about supporting a cryptocurrency ‘Tether’ for domestic distribution, according to Nikkei Asian Review.
Tether is issued by a Hong Kong company, Tether Ltd. It is a blockchain-based cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to the dollar. The NUG is supporting citizens to use Tether as its greater use could weaken the power of the military, which controls the issuance of the country’s currency. Using Tether means no monitoring or being obstructed by the authorities.
Last year, a project called Myanmar Dollar (MYD) was started by an anonymous group to remove the dependence on a centralized currency system to have the freedom to manage assets without it. However, this failed to build a market. Now, Tether is an established digital currency and these transactions between citizens are unlikely to be noticed by officials.
There have been many attempts by the NUG to protest the military earlier. The endorsement of crypto is certainly a sophisticated method and one cannot deny the possibility that crypto-assets may be added to the arsenal of citizens in time.
Image: Wikimedia commons
