Blockchain technology is becoming a firm favorite for government economies across the globe. Austria is the latest country to speak of its desire to implement the technology. Austria will use Ethereum (available on Coinbase)’s blockchain, but for what?

Well, the European country is looking to raise funds. It will be auctioning $1.3 billion worth of government bonds and will use Ethereum (available on Coinbase)’s blockchain to authenticate the contracts. But will it manage to raise such a large sum? We will know next Tuesday.

Austria will use Ethereum (available on Coinbase)’s Blockchain

Austria‘s primary financial services institution for its export industry and associated markets, The Oesterreichische Kontrollbank (OeKB), is going to auction off new government bonds as of next Tuesday.

The new bonds will use the Ethereum (available on Coinbase) blockchain and will help manage public debt amounting to $1.3 billion. The OeKB is working in tandem with Austria’s Federal Government Finance Agency (OeBFA) to implement the technology.

Economic Policy Focus

According to Austria’s Finance Minister Hartwig Löger, blockchain technology is “an economic policy focus for Austria.” Such is the focus that the country established the FinTech Advisory Council to help encourage and manage growth in sectors using distributed ledgers.

The government bonds will be a form of investing. In purchasing a bond, investors will effectively be loaning the government money to be repaid over a pre-determined settlement period. There will be interest added on to the repayment so as to incentivize bond-holders to invest in the first place.