Photo taken on July 9, 2020 shows a physical silver collector coin matched with the bank's digital collector coin LBCOIN to be issued on July 23, in Vilnius, Lithuania. An e-shop (lbcoin.lb.lt) has been launched on Thursday in Lithuania by the country's central bank, giving the green light to register to purchase the world's first blockchain-based digital collector coin LBCOIN. (Photo by Alfredas Pliadis/Xinhua)
VILNIUS, July 9 (Xinhua) -- An e-shop (lbcoin.lb.lt) has been launched on Thursday in Lithuania by the country's central bank, giving the green light to register to purchase the world's first blockchain-based digital collector coin LBCOIN.
"Today we turn a new page in the history of numismatics, further exploring the potential of central bank digital currencies. This innovation will bring real benefits to society by contributing to future digital solutions," Marius Jurgilas, member of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania, was quoted as saying in a press release.
To be issued on July 23, the blockchain-based LBCOIN consists of six digital tokens and one physical silver collector coin. The Bank of Lithuania will issue 4,000 LBCOINs, namely 24,000 digital tokens and 4,000 physical collector coins.
The coin is dedicated to the Act of Independence of Lithuania and its 20 signatories. Each token features one of the 20 signatories and belongs to one of the six signatory categories (priests, presidents, diplomats, industrialists, academics, municipal servants) with 4,000 tokens allotted to each category.
Buyers are recommended to register at the LBCOIN e-shop ahead of time. Having remotely confirmed their identity, users will be generated an e-wallet where the Bank of Lithuania will transfer the purchased LBCOIN tokens.
Within the period from the first to the sixth day of its sale, one buyer will only be able to purchase one LBCOIN. Later, the number of purchases for one person will not be limited.
Having purchased LBCOIN, collectors will get six randomly selected digital tokens which they will be able to exchange for a physical collector coin, store in a dedicated e-wallet on the e-shop, send as a gift, swap with other collectors or transfer to a public NEM wallet. The price of LBCOIN is 99 euros (112 U.S. dollars).
The physical silver collector coins, bearing an unconventional denomination of 19.18 euros, were minted at the Lithuanian Mint. In size and form, they resemble a credit card, depicting the Act of Independence and its signatories.
The first steps in developing LBCOIN were taken during the hackathon held by the Bank of Lithuania in June 2018. The LBCOIN project has been carried out by the Bank of Lithuania and a team of external providers. (1 euro = 1.13 U.S. dollars) Enditem
