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The Guardian newspaper reports that the Marshall Islands – a modest island nation in Oceania with an area of ​​181.43 km² – has introduced a national Universal Basic Income (UBI) program that allows payments in cryptocurrency alongside traditional methods. According to experts, this is the first program of its kind in the world.

Under the program, every citizen residing in the Marshall Islands will receive a quarterly payment of approximately $200 (approximately 5.264 million VND) in an effort by the government to alleviate the burden of living costs.

The first payment was made at the end of November this year, and beneficiaries can choose to receive the money via bank account, check, or as cryptocurrency on the blockchain through a government-backed digital wallet.

 Majuro, the largest atoll of the Marshall Islands and the country's capital.

“Our government wants to make sure that no one is left behind,” Marshall Islands Finance Minister David Paul told the Guardian.

“The $200 per person per quarter, or about $800 a year, doesn’t make you quit your job… but it really is like a morale boost for everyone.”

The Marshall Islands is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, located between the Hawaiian Islands (USA) and Australia, with a population of only about 42,000 people. According to Worldometers, the nominal (current) gross domestic product (GDP) of the archipelago is only $302 million by 2025, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Meanwhile, that figure for Vietnam is approximately $484.73 billion.  This means that, comparatively, our country's nominal GDP is currently more than 1,605 times higher than that of the Marshall Islands.

Mr. Paul stated that these payments are considered a "social safety net" in the context of rising living costs and people leaving this small country.

The UBI program is funded by a trust fund established under an agreement with the US, to partially compensate the Marshall Islands for decades of US nuclear testing. This fund currently holds over $1.3 billion in assets, and the US has committed to contributing an additional $500 million by 2027.

Mainly cash payments for groceries

Dr. Huy Pham, Associate Professor and Head of the crypto-fintech research group at RMIT University, said the Marshall Islands program "is the world's first UBI program implemented on a national scale." He said the use of blockchain technology is "unique in terms of nationwide implementation.

 Dr. Huy Pham, Senior Lecturer in Finance, Founder of RMIT FinTech-Crypto Hub, RMIT University Vietnam

The option of receiving payments via cryptocurrency – through the transfer of a digital token called a stablecoin, pegged to the US dollar – is designed to address the practical challenge of transferring money to hundreds of remote islands. “We see an opportunity in what blockchain can offer,” said the Marshall Islands’ Minister of Finance, David Paul.

Blockchain is best known as the technology behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but it can also be used to store and transfer more traditional assets such as government bonds – something the Marshall Islands is adopting as the foundation for its digital payment system.

 However, according to Mr. Huy Pham, digital payments alone may not guarantee financial inclusion, especially in a country like the Marshall Islands, where internet connectivity is unreliable and frequently interrupted.

“Improving internet coverage, increasing smartphone usage – all of these are minimum requirements for a blockchain-based economy,” he said.

The majority of beneficiaries are choosing to receive their government bonuses through traditional channels. According to the Marshall Islands Social Security Administration, about 60% of the initial payments were transferred directly to bank accounts, with the remainder issued as paper checks.

Only a small number of people – about 12 so far, according to officials – have registered to receive payments via digital wallets. The Marshall Islands Ministry of Finance stated that the initial registrations were part of a small pilot program, and that this program has achieved 100% of its initial targets. 

Anelie Sarana, the financial manager involved in the program's implementation, said that over the past year, her team has traveled to the most remote islands of the Marshall Islands to register people for the program.

Ms. Sarana said that many beneficiaries used the money immediately for essential needs such as grocery shopping and daily necessities, while others used the $200 to pay for annual Gospel Day celebrations, which coincide with the initial distribution of funds.

“I know they’re happy because you can see the streets, the traffic is heavy, like a big event is happening,” she said.

“I know they’re happy because you can see the streets, the traffic is so heavy it’s like a big event is happening,” she said.

This isn’t the first time the Marshall Islands have experimented with cryptocurrency. In 2018, the government attempted to create a national cryptocurrency called Sovereign, or SOV. The plan ultimately stalled after warnings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF warned that while the underlying technology of the new program is innovative, blockchain-based universal basic income payments carry “financial, budgetary, legal, reputational, and financial integrity risks,” especially if governance and oversight mechanisms are not sufficiently robust.

Dr. Monique Taylor, a lecturer in world politics at the University of Helsinki (Finland), believes it’s difficult to predict whether the Marshall Islands’ experiment combining universal basic income with a cryptocurrency payment system will be successful.

 “Universal income programs are rare, especially at the national level, and there is no direct precedent for combining this fiscal structure with a digital payments component in a small island nation,” Taylor said. However, she believes the program still offers certain benefits to small island nations.

“In a geographically dispersed archipelago nation where traditional banking infrastructure is limited, digital wallets can reduce barriers and make money transfers more accessible, especially in remote coral islands,” Taylor added.