Thoughts on JPM Coin
JPM Coin has the potential to form the basis of a new interbank settlement network, with a bank-issued digital dollar that may become an alternative to central bank reserves for the settlement of interbank payments.
Israeli company partners with Marshall Islands to launch digital currency | The Times of Israel
"The Marshall Islands is gearing to release a digital currency this year, although officials acknowledged Friday there is much work still to be done to alleviate concerns of United States financial regulators."
Marshall Islands Rejects IMF Concerns to Launch 'Sovereign' (SOV) Digital Currency as Legal Tender
Neema, the firm managing the Marshall Islands cryptocurrency program, has made a list of countries potentially open to a cryptocurrency as legal tender, looking for smaller countries that don't have their own currencies and which vote alongside Israel in the United Nations. Neema’s law firm Yigal Arnon & Co are reportedly helping the Marshall Islands central bank to create the legislation needed to operate its own currency.
Stablecoins: The Next Generation Of Digital Money
The vision for stablecoins is larger than that of bitcoin. The total addressable market for stablecoins is essentially all of the money in the world, or approximately $90 trillion.
Interest Rates are the Next Battleground in the Stablecoin Wars
So far, dollar backed stablecoins like Tether’s USDT or Circle’s USDC don’t pay any interest to holders of their coin. We think that is about to change in 2019. As of today, the users of stablecoins are effectively giving their providers free loans in return for a service (digitally transferring bank dollar certificates) that is not very distinguished from one provider to the next.
Philadelphia Is First U.S. City to Ban Cashless Stores
Philadelphia is the first major U.S. city to ban cashless stores, placing it at the forefront of a debate that pits retail innovation against lawmakers trying to protect all citizens’ access to the marketplace.
One of Japan’s biggest banks is launching a digital “coin” to replace cash—without using crypto
According to a Mizuho spokesperson, J-Coin doesn’t use cryptocurrency or blockchain in any form. That conflicts with numerous reports going back as far as 2017 suggesting that the bank was researching or planning a digital currency pegged to the Japanese yen (paywall).
Exclusive: Mexican central bank in talks with Amazon about new mobile payments | Reuters
"Mexico’s central bank is in talks with Amazon.com Inc to launch a new government-backed mobile payment system that would allow consumers to pay for online purchases using QR codes, the bank’s head of payments said."
Central Bank Digital Currency and Banking by Jonathan Chiu, Seyed Mohammadreza Davoodalhosseini, Janet Hua Jiang, Yu Zhu :: SSRN
"This paper builds a model with imperfect competition in the banking sector. In the model, banks issue deposits and make loans, and deposits can be used as payment instruments by households. We use the model to assess the general equilibrium effects of introducing central bank digital currency (CBDC). We identify a new channel through which CBDC can improve the efficiency of bank intermediation and increase lending and aggregate output even if its usage is low, i.e., CBDC serves as an outside option for households, thus limiting banks' market power in the deposit market. We then calibrate the model to evaluate the quantitative implication of this channel."
MakerDAO Token Holders Approve Fee Increase for Ethereum Stablecoin DAI - CoinDesk
"After a four-day vote open to all token holders, users of MakerDAO’s dollar-pegged, ethereum stablecoin DAI have voted to increase the costs associated with its primary service – programmatic lending. Finalized Thursday, the first round of voting will put in motion another vote to raise the “DAI Stability Fee” that would increase this cost to users to 3.5 percent, up from 1.5 percent today, pending what appear to be administrative measures."
Niall Ferguson joins blockchain project Ampleforth | FT Alphaville
"I was very wrong. Wrong to think there was no […] use for a form of currency based on blockchain technology," Ferguson is reported to have said. Notably, as of last month, he sits on the advisory board of algorithmic (non-fiat-pegged) stablecoin issuer Ampleforth.
MakerDAO Opens Token Holder Vote on Fee Hike for Ethereum Stablecoin - CoinDesk
"Christensen said last Thursday that the DAI’s dollar-peg is “almost at a breaking point” as a lack of organic demand threatens to start a “dangerous feedback loop” driven by “a speculative drop in the price.” He then called for a community poll to guide stakeholder votes about increasing fees and raising the stablecoin system’s debt ceiling."
Eastern Caribbean Central Bank to Test Blockchain Legal Tender - CoinDesk
"The pilot is launching this month and, after roughly 12 months of development and testing, will be followed by rollout and implementation in pilot countries for about six months. The ECCB will also launch educational initiatives to raise public engagement with DXCD across the union."
Stablecoins See Few On-Chain Transactions Despite Recent Surge in Exchange Volume
"Despite many stablecoins ranking among the top 20 most traded crypto assets by monthly volume, a recent report has shown that there are few onchain transactions conducted using these fiat-pegged tokens."
Why the world is awash with $100 bills | Financial Times
"Torsten Slok, Deutsche Bank’s chief international economist, spotted that the volume of hundred-dollar bills in circulation had, according to data compiled by the US Federal Reserve, doubled since 2008, leaving around 12.5 billion of these bills stuffed into wallets, safes and suitcases globally. That’s $1.25tn."
ECCB to Issue World’s First Blockchain-based Digital Currency – Blog | Bitt
"The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) and the Barbados-based fintech company, Bitt Inc. (Bitt) have signed a contract to conduct a blockchain-issued Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot within the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU)."
Money and Central Bank Digital Currency
Central bank digital currency: Concepts and trends
So far, however, no central banks have found strong advantages to issuing their own digital coins due to technical constraints. An isolated move is noticeable in the case of Riksbank, which has been considering the issuance of deposit accounts or prepaid payment tools to the general public in the face of declining use of cash.
New Partnership Allows TrueUSD Traders to Audit The Coin’s Backing Assets
The dashboard developed by Armanino purportedly enables traders to monitor TrueUSD token balances and collateralized funds. “Armanino connects directly to third-party escrow accounts holding the U.S. dollars that collateralize TrueUSD tokens, and runs their own ETH nodes to ensure accurate TUSD token supply,” the post details.
The Rise of Stablecoins: An Analysis of Market Adoption | TradeBlock
"Our findings indicate that stable coins still have significant room to make inroads on traditional payment processors as a payment option. The accessibility and user experience on traditional payment applications remains significantly further developed than applications and platforms that are used to transfer stablecoins. While stablecoins have shown promise as a way for users to transfer monetary stable value quickly and cheaply, such transactions have not seen explosive adoption, as evidenced by the relatively low number of on-chain transactions. Further, while stable coins initially saw traction as a digital currency trading pair on exchanges, this appears to have lost some momentum as trading volumes fall and as the US dollar maintains its dominance as the top trading pair in bitcoin and altcoin transactions."
Moneyness: Swish cash and bitcoin
"Swish's success (at the expense of cash) probably isn't solely a function of enlightened consumer choice--it also benefited from a gentle nudge from the Riksbank (and the private sector, who advised the central bank)."
The Bahamas to introduce blockchain central bank digital currency | finder.com.au
""The Central Bank expects that at the conclusion of this project all residents in The Bahamas will have equal, expanded access to modernised digital payments capabilities. A concurrent reduction in cash transactions is also expected. The evolved Bahamian payments infrastructure should reduce service delivery costs, increase transactional efficiency and improve the overall level of financial inclusion in communities throughout the archipelago," the Central Bank explains."
CBOB Identifies Preferred Technology Solutions Provider for Bahamas Sand Dollar (CBOB)
[March 1, 2019] The Central Bank of The Bahamas (CBOB)announced that it has selected NZIA Limited as its preferred technology provider to design and implement its Sand Dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC). NZIA will integrate its enterprise blockchain and internet-of-things (IOT) infrastructure supplied in partnership with IBM and Zynesis. The project’s stated policy objectives are to expand access to digital payments nationwide, reduce reliance on cash, lower service delivery costs, raise transactional efficiency, and support financial inclusion across the archipelago. Implementation requires complementary legislative changes via a new Central Bank of The Bahamas Bill 2019 and associated regulations to address exchange control, anti–money laundering and counterterrorist financing safeguards, and to ensure the digital instrument complements rather than displaces existing banking services; pilot details remain pending. [CBOB]
Facebook Got Data Privacy Wrong, but Could it Get Blockhain and Fintech Right? - Fintech Hong Kong
Several financial institutions have already integrated with Messenger including American Express, Mastercard, MoneyGram, and PayPal. Brazil’s Banco Bradesco for instance is leveraging the Facebook platform to allow customers to conduct day-to-day banking from Facebook, relying on the social network’s customer data analytics to target users.
Saga - Global Digital Currency
"Saga addresses public policy concerns raised by these developments. Non-anonymous and reserve backed, Saga is supported by global subject-matter leaders. Saga sees itself as complementary to the existing financial system."
DAI — a decentralized opposition to the ‘banking cartel’ of stablecoins accumulates 1.7
"Today it seems that the only stable coin that is securely emitted in a decentralized manner is MakerDAO’s DAI. It is also one of the most popular #DeFi apps in Ethereum ecosystem. What is it that makes DAI so unique generating an explosive amount of community trust? Here we will touch upon the core mechanics of MakerDAO emission system, and shed some light on how you as a Ethereum user can benefit from that today."
Will Fiat-Backed Stablecoins Pass Legal Muster With the SEC and CFTC? - CoinDesk
"Given how these stablecoins are redeemed, the SEC might characterize them as “demand notes,” which are traditionally defined as two-party negotiable instruments obligating a debtor to pay the noteholder at any time upon request. According to the Supreme Court’s 1990 decision in Reves v. Ernst & Young, demand notes are presumed to be securities under Exchange Act Section 3(a)(10) unless an exception or exclusion applies."
Can JPM Coin disrupt the existing stablecoin market?
Can JPM Coin disrupt the existing stablecoin market?
JP Morgan Is Quietly Testing Cutting-Edge Ethereum Privacy Tech - CoinDesk
Now, the global bank is testing out another zero-knowledge privacy solution called AZTEC. Developed by a London startup of the same name, this protocol aims to allow encryption of blockchain data at a lower cost and more efficiently than previous versions of the technology
Facebook and Telegram Are Hoping to Succeed Where Bitcoin Failed
The internet outfits, including Facebook, Telegram and Signal, are planning to roll out new stablecoins over the next year that are meant to allow users to send money to contacts on their messaging systems, like a Venmo or PayPal that can move across international borders.