TechFlow news, December 17 — According to CoinDesk, the Ministry of Finance of the Marshall Islands announced that the country has successfully completed the world's first blockchain-based universal basic income (UBI) disbursement using USDM1, a digital sovereign bond on the Stellar blockchain.
This multi-million-dollar project, named ENRA, was developed by the government of the Marshall Islands in collaboration with the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) and infrastructure provider Crossmint. It aims to replace traditional quarterly physical cash distributions by providing direct digital transfers to citizens spread across the islands.
USDM1 is a dollar-denominated sovereign bond fully backed by short-term U.S. Treasury securities and distributed via the Stellar distribution platform into Lomalo, a custom digital wallet application. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance of the Marshall Islands emphasized that the bond is "issued under New York law, based on the proven Brady bond structure, with its foundation not in regulatory discretion or policy preference, but in established law."
SDF CEO Denelle Dixon stated that the program demonstrates "what blockchain technology applications look like," delivering everyday financial services to regions previously underserved.
