For the first time ever Canadian financial regulators have approved the public sales of digital currency. This marks the first official endorsement of any sort of money created independently of the Canadian government or central banks.
This means that the Montreal-based impak Finance can go ahead with its public sale of its digital impak Coin money. Impak Finance has raised about $1.5 million CAD ahead of this launch, and the company hopes to raise up to $10 million from this first sale of cryptocurrency.
Paul Allard, CEO of impak Finance, told Reuters that the goal with this new currency is to reduce the power of big banks in determining how property rights are managed and money is created. “It is up to communities to decide how to manage a currency, it is not only for the government to device,” said Allard.
Impak Coin users will be able to spend any of this new currency that they buy through a mobile wallet connected to their smartphones. As of the launch of this first public sale, roughly 500 businesses have signed up to accept this new currency.
And users who purchase this currency will be able to exchange it for traditional money that will be credited to their accounts. However, users looking to go this route will need to wait for an initial waiting period that Allard says was created to stop speculators from causing volatility in the currency’s value.
Additionally, impak Finance will be keeping 40 per cent of the money invested in the impak Coin as reserves. This is being done so that the company will have cash on hand if users want to exchange it for traditional money.
If you’re interested in checking out the impak Coin for yourself, its public sale is live on the impak Finance website.