The Republic of the Marshall Islands today announced that blockchain expert Steve Tendon is advising and assisting the country with the drafting, design, and issuance of SOV, the digital legal tender of the Marshall Islands, and the economy spawning around it.

“With Steve working alongside Neema, we are growing closer every day to support the Marshall Islands with issuing the first digital legal tender and launching a financial services economy around it” Chief Economist for SOV, Dr. Peter Dittus said. Dr. Dittus is the former Secretary General of the Bank for International Settlements.

The Marshall Islands is working to issue its own digital currency in order to address the environmental and financial challenges they face as a small and vulnerable island economy in the Pacific. By opening their islands to the entire blockchain economy, the Marshall Islands plans to become a crypto-financial powerhouse, connecting blockchain with mainstream banking services.

“Steve is one of the foremost experts in blockchain technology and regulations,” Dr. Dittus said. “Steve will assist with the drafting and designing of regulations to develop a blockchain financial services economy out of the Marshall Islands,” Dittus added.

The SOV is a decentralized digital currency to be legal tender of a sovereign nation. Once issued the SOV will join the U.S. dollar as the official money, or legal tender of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI).

Based on blockchain technology, the SOV is a decentralized digital currency that allows fast and cheap global transactions while preventing abuse by bad actors.

Steve Tendon is the Managing Director of TameFlow Consulting/ChainStrategies, a consulting firm that provides research, analysis, and strategy development for businesses that need to adopt or transition to blockchain technologies.

A senior executive management consultant, adviser, speaker, and author, Steve’s research and consulting work focuses on the use of emerging technologies — in particular, blockchain technologies — to improve business performance.

In 2016, Steve was the strategic adviser for the Ministry of Economy, Investment and Small Business (MEIB) of the Maltese Government, and developed the vision of the “Blockchain Island” and designed Malta’s National Blockchain Strategy (unanimously approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in April, 2017). Subsequently, he was appointed as the Strategy Lead to Malta’s National Blockchain Task Force, advising the Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation (FSDEI) Office of the Prime Minister on implementing the country’s blockchain strategy.