The cryptocurrency Scotcoin has been offered, free of charge, to the Scottish Government to make it the country’s official digital currency.
“I’d prefer to call it a donation to the Scottish people,” said David Low, co-owner of Scotcoin.
If the offer is accepted, Low wants the equivalent of £10,000 in Scotcoin to be given to every under-25 year old in the country. If it is rejected he will set up a Community Interest Company – one which uses profits and assets for the public good – and go ahead with the distribution of funds to help alleviate poverty and sustain community and charitable projects.
Lawyers for Low, and the Scotcoin Project – the educational, marketing and promotional face of the currency – last week wrote to Cabinet Secretary Keith Brown, responsible for jobs and the economy, outlining the proposal. The offer includes the intellectual property, trademarks, domain name and a portfolio of others domains. The letter was also sent to leaders of all the other parties at Holyrood.
Low said that Scotcoin was now in the process of constructing its own blockchain – the un-hackable software and public register of online transactions – as the present one is “cranky and rickety. We are setting up a state of the art new one”.
He continued, “The current one is fraught with hurdles, volatility, transaction costs, slowness and we will move more into the mainstream and all of the barriers will be removed. It will also meet all known UK regulations, so there will be protection against money laundering and it will have a Scottish domicile with an ethos of probity and substance.” It will, says Low, have “Scottish DNA will be all over it.”
If the offer isn’t taken up the community interest company, with a new CEO and a professional board, including international advisers, will administer the relaunched currency. It will have what is called a “pre-mined” money supply of which a proportion will be held by existing holders – including Sunday Herald readers who took advantage of the exclusive Scotcoin offer in August 2016 – strategic partners and others.
The uninissued money, with a current market value of £50 million, will be administered by the board with what the Low’s lawyers describe as “bottom-up quantitative easing for the principal benefit of the disadvantaged and deserving.” Young people will be encouraged to work with the homeless and in community ventures – “to do good deeds” – and will be paid in Scotcoin.
“They can keep the money or they can spend it,” Low said, “but obviously if they’re going to be paid in Scotcoin then they need to be able to spend it. We’re in the process of signing up strategic partners as both employers and businesses where the cash can be spent.”
Low, who was the architect of the Fergus McCann takeover of Celtic in 1994, said that the relaunched Scotcoin would be fully transferable to and from all major currencies, including dollars and sterling. “You’ll use a pre-paid card to shop, a bit like the present system where you can flash one and spend up to thirty pounds and its deducted from your bank account”.
Low’s proposal is not an entirely philanthropic gesture. He will continue to hold his own Scotcoins, which he believes will increase substantially in value, whatever the outcome of his offer to the Scottish Government.
“We believe in the future of digital coinage and the Scotcoin,” Low said. “It’s up to the Government to decide if they do or not.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We will respond to the letter in due course.”
