The separatist committee of Veneto, Italy, is planning to launch their own cryptocurrency in 2016. The new cryptocoin will be based on a bitcoin-type blockchain but controlled by “a central Venetian cryptobank.”

It is expected to serve a foundation for an experimental economic system run by the separatist government. Their website Plebiscito.eu promises that “the whole economic system will operate in compliance with the currency international law.”

Right now, Veneto is a region of Italy. But Plebiscito.eu hopes to change it. And the cryptocoin is expected to provide a basis for the new state building. To become a digital citizen of the newly-established Venetian Republic, one would have to pay in a small sum in this digital currency. It will also be used to collect taxes (which are to be “minimal”, according to the separatists).

The name of the new cryptocoin is not yet disclosed. It is expected to be decentralised and supported by mining, similarly to bitcoins, but at the same time it will be “screened and guaranteed by the central Venetian cryptobank.”

The announcement details multiple ways for Venetian citizens to obtain the new cryptocurrency. They will be able to buy it with euros, US dollars or bitcoins, receive it as a reward for digital currency mining or be paid in it if they “demonstrate their efforts as activists for the Venetian Republic.” They will be able to either store that money themselves or keep it safe with service providers certified by the central Venetian cryptobank.

The separatist committee created by a wealthy software businessman Gianluca Busato has already organised an online referendum on the independence of Veneto in March 2014. According to the results published on its website, 2.36 million Venetians (63.2% of all eligible voters) participated and 89.1% of them (56.6% of all eligible voters) voted yes. The numbers were never confirmed officially and the referendum was ignored by the Italian government. The Wikipedia article about he referendum, published in seven languages, is noticeably absent in the Italian version. The attempt by the Regional Council of Veneto to organise an official referendum was blocked by the Italian Constitutional Court as contrary to the Constitution.

Alexey Tereshchenko