Published on the Interfax Ukraine on February 22nd, The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has officially completed the pilot test phase for the nation’s new digital currency – e-hryvnia.

According to the head of its payment networks and innovative growth department Aleksandr Yablunivskiy, the concept of a new national digital currency has been proposed by the Ukrainian Central Bank over the past year and has only begun the pilot project in last December.

“At the end of last year we began a practical pilot, when the instrument was released for NBU employees under current methodology, in order to assess its practical use aspects and the ability of the central bank to realize future projects, as well as getting feedback from users,” Aleksandr claimed.

The e-hryvnia digital currency pilot scheme is reportedly a pioneering effort made by the Ukrainian government to gradually reduce the nation’s heavy dependence on cash.

The Ukrainian officials have also taken steps to establish suitable legislation that helps properly regulate the cryptocurrency market. However, due to an abundant number of active regulators in the area, the movement has received contradictory comments. The NBU will instead go forth with their digital currency project by studying the pilot scheme’s outcomes.

“We are not talking about cryptocurrency, we are talking about a central bank digital currency. It can be implemented with both the technology of a centralized registry and a decentralized one.” Yablunivksy further said to distinguish e-hryvnia from cryptocurrency.