But crypto enthusiasts in the Kingdom say that’s easier said than done. Cryptocurrency exists in a legal “grey area”, according to several entrepreneurs pursuing crypto projects in the Kingdom, with the government rejecting the currencies themselves while embracing their underlying technology.

In Mean is the lead developer of the Khmer Crypto Foundation, and has also created his own cryptocurrency called KHCoin. While Mean admitted to feeling on-edge about operating in an atmosphere of regulatory uncertainty, he said he understood the hesitation on the part of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) to engage with cryptocurrency. The new technology is often plagued by scams, wild fluctuations in value and under-regulation.

When Mean created KHCoin, he originally offered it for free to stay on the right side of the law. Then, when he tried to monetise it, he got slapped down by regulators.

“I wanted to bring value to my coin, but when I started my payment system, the national bank said, ‘Any crypto transaction is illegal’,” Mean said, referring to an announcement from the NBC in December banning “all banks and microfinance institutions from trading, buying, selling and advertising cryptocurrencies”.

That announcement led some banks to prevent customers from using their own personal bank accounts to buy or sell cryptocurrency, which made it difficult to trade in cryptocurrencies without specifically outlawing people from owning them.

But prior to its December announcement, the NBC had launched its own initiative to explore the use of the underlying technology that cryptocurrency relies on, a concept known as blockchains. The NBC signed an agreement with a Japanese firm in April to develop a blockchain-based project for its own internal use, which would track interbank lending and transactions.

Blockchain was developed in 2009 to operate as a public ledger for the original cryptocurrency, bitcoin. The technology operates by recording a series of new transactions, called “blocks”, that reference previous blocks, forming a cryptographically secure list of recorded transactions that are linked together.

“At its core, the blockchain is just a database. We’ve discovered a way for the public to change this database without corrupting any of the previous entries within it, so it’s impossible to fake a transaction,” explained Steve Miller, founder of Cambodia-based blockchain group CryptoAsia.

According to Miller, a “private blockchain” project like the one at the NBC is just a database lacking a verification process. And that verification process – the backbone of any blockchain project – is where cryptocurrencies become necessary, according to Miller.