After several years of exploring a possible central bank-issued digital currency – now the Riksbank is launching a pilot project to test a proposal for a technical solution for an e-krona.

The solution will be based on the blockchain technology and the purpose is for the e-krona to function as a complement to cash, where the state guarantees the value of the money.

The test is run together with the company Accenture, the Riksbank writes on its site. The project will run until February 2021.

There is still no decision to eventually issue an e-krona.

The announcement about the pilot project started was published on the Riksbank official website.

Many central banks are actually exploring the possibility to launch a central bank-issued digital currency and among these countries are Japan, China, Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland and others.

On the other side, there is Libra, Facebook’s digital currency that is about to launch this year and.

The narrative of state-issued digital currencies comes after the growing popularity of bitcoin and blockchain, bitcoins underlying technology. IMF has warned central banks about the threat cryptocurrencies poses to the the actual banking system urging them to do something.