On February 15, Hungary launched Europe’s newest digital currency in Budapest. The Korona Coin running on the Lightning Network is being promoted as a cheaper, safer, and more stable alternative to its competitors. The coin’s ICO is on March 26—once bought, the token will be available for payments and transfers immediately.

The “Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study” done by the University of Cambridge Judge Business School which claims to be the “first study to systematically investigate key cryptocurrency industry sectors by collecting empirical, non-public data” states that customers are adopting new forms of payments to make the process more efficient. 86% of the companies surveyed made use of the Bitcoin network for cross-border transactions—but this method still has several difficulties with transaction times, scalability, and the flexibility to build smart contracts on its system.

During the launch, Korona CEO Jean-Marc Stiegemeier said “Banking as we know it today will eventually evolve into different platforms. We started this project because we saw the opportunity to take cryptocurrency technology into the future.”

The Korona headquarters is located in Zug, Switzerland, despite being primarily developed by Hungarians. The team states that the token was not developed in Hungary as Zug is Europe’s cryptovalley – as such, it provides a more stable and efficient environment which shareholders and customers alike look for.

Stiegemeier said, “Over the next few years we are going to see a revolution in the banking sector.” He continues, saying “Within ten years, cryptocurrency will be used and accepted worldwide.”

There are also plans to put up a purpose-built bank and payment platform designed to operate under Swiss financial authorities’ supervision. 90 percent of the cryptocurrencies today, the developers claim, are pseudo-currencies. This means that they are not suitable for actual, real-world transactions. The blockchain advisor of Korona and Corvinus Business School Professor Dr. Tuan Trinh explains that “Bitcoin is slow and too expensive for businesses. It costs 20 US dollars for each transaction and it is not efficient for retailers.”

An e-commerce website will be launched, technology development head Attila Bustya explains. The website will be hosting those which do not normally accept cryptocurrency payments. A new integrated Price Comparison System is also in the works to allow users to choose their products for the best and cheapest price internationally. Bustya outlines the value of this tool saying “for a top-notch phone we pay more in Europe than in the US, it is not fair.”

He continues, “Business clients today find it hard to use cryptocurrency because of high taxation and missing information. We are developing business wallets which will allow businesses to register and receive various services to support their compliance: Support for VAT reporting, invoicing, accounting, and such.”