DFC

"The European Central Bank (ECB) has “no plans” to issue its own digital currency, President Mario Draghi told the European Parliament Wednesday, September 12. Addressing a query by MEP Jonás Fernández, Draghi said “substantial development” was still needed in the underlying technology behind cryptocurrencies before the Central Bank would consider using them. “The ECB and the Eurosystem currently have no plans to issue a central bank digital currency,” he summarized: “Nonetheless, we are carefully analysing the potential consequences of issuing such a currency as a complement to cash.”"

"Digifinex has decided to replace tether (USDT), perhaps the best-known "stablecoin" designed to maintain a steady exchange rate with the U.S. dollar, with a rival, TrustToken's TrueUSD. Based in Singapore, Digifinex handled $131 million in trading volume over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap, making it the 16th-largest exchange by that measure."

"Writing on tech publication Good Audience, blockchain researcher Alex Lebed performs a code review of the Gemini dollar smart contract, finding that, contrary to the ethos and technical specifications of decentralized cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, GUSD includes a provision that allows its “custodian” — namely Gemini — to freeze any account. Lebed — who, in full disclosure, is also attached to a separate stablecoin project — further notes that GUSD uses an ERC20Proxy contract that gives Gemini, as the custodian, the ability to upgrade the contract once every 48 hours, giving it among a myriad of other things the power to simultaneously render all tokens non-transferable."

The implementation of the recently launched Gemini dollar (GUSD) stablecoin can be completely changed by a Gemini custodian every 48 hours, according to a study authored by blockchain researcher Alex Lebed and crypto consultant Alexey Akhunov, published on Medium on September 11.

"Binance is set to unveil a fiat currency exchange that will be based in Singapore. This was revealed by CEO Changpeng Zhao over the weekend while speaking at the Cumberland Summit, a blockchain event in Singapore. Zhao further revealed that the new exchange is currently under an invitation-only beta testing phase."

"Tether (USDT), the eighth-largest cryptocurrency and the second most-traded coin behind bitcoin, is functioning as normal following an incident with the engine that feeds data from the underlying Omni protocol to the platform’s hosted node services. For approximately eight hours on Monday, tether transactions appeared to be frozen, and in fact were — at least for the many users who do not operate full nodes."

We identified the most relevant factors for the implementation of a CBDC in LatAm, under different designs. We concluded that the region could benefit more from the adoption of a CBDC than developed countries. However, the existence of costs associated with implementation casts uncertainty on where it will be adopted first.

"The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has said it is “considering” introducing a digital version of its national currency, the hryvnia, that is not based on Blockchain, at least for now. The central bank reported in a Facebook post Thursday Jan. 11 that it is studying “new and innovative technologies” as part of the country’s so-called Cashless Economy project, of which the potential e-hryvnia is a part."

[May 12, 2017] Palestinian officials planned to launch a digital-only currency called the Palestinian pound within five years, according to Azzam Shawwa, head of the Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA), speaking in May 2017. The initiative aimed to safeguard against potential Israeli interference, as Palestinians lacked their own currency and used euros, U.S. dollars, Israeli shekels, and Jordanian dinars. The bitcoin-style e-currency would bypass practical obstacles since printing physical currency would require Israeli clearance for entry into Palestinian territories. The 1994 Paris Protocol gave the PMA central bank functions but prohibited currency issuance and granted Israel veto power over Palestinian currency, making the digital approach a potential workaround. The currency plans were part of a broader five-year strategy to establish a recognized central bank with the necessary economic backbone including reserves, gold, and oil, though other options like maintaining the multi-currency status quo remained under consideration.

"Attacking cash costs is a crucial battle in the war on cash. Banks in all markets should take decisive steps to cut the costs of their cash operations: streamlining processes, eliminating excess cash stock, and optimizing distribution networks. In the long term, banks, industry associations, and regulators should focus on pursuing a national utility for cash handling. Northern Europe is leading the charge. While the need to lower fixed costs is more urgent in vanguard countries with higher share of electronic payments, emerging and mature economies have a unique opportunity to leapfrog and reap big gains in efficiency and customer satisfaction."

"The Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group, signed an agreement with Ateon to build a block-chain based product that can potentially be used to support  development and financial inclusion in IDB member countries. Ateon, a member of Alhamrani Group of Companies in Saudi Arabia, will work on this project in partnership with Settlemint, a Belgium-based software company with extensive experience in designing blockchain applications for financial institutions. The three parties will be working on a first-of-its-kind use case using  blockchain's smart contracts to crate Sharia'a complaint financial products  to support the development of IDB member countries."

Nations never experience year-over-year declines in cash in circulation. Sweden (which I wrote about here, here, and here) is one of the rare exceptions. India is another, but this was due to its notorious botched demonetization attempt (which I wrote about here, here, here, and here). But now the UK seems to be joining this small group of outliers.

While the Internet has reached most people in Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, and Singapore, more than 70 percent of people in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao P.D.R., and Myanmar remain offline and can’t fully participate in the digital economy. High-speed broadband is even more scarce. ASEAN trails China, Japan, and Korea. Singapore is the sole exception.

Circle, the crypto company backed by Goldman Sachs, on Wednesday became the first official issuer of a new cryptocurrency pegged to the dollar. Circle will allow people to "tokenize" dollars by depositing them through an online gateway. Depositors will be given USDC — US dollar coins — in exchange.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) is considering launching a state-owned digital currency based on blockchain, local news outlet Vesti Ukraine reported Tuesday, September 25.

The State of Stablecoins report takes a detailed look for the first time at the strengths, trade-offs and concerns associated with all 57 active stablecoins, including both live and pre-launch projects, using a new data set that includes previously non-public information.

In an effort to push Hong Kong towards a cashless society, the HKMA Faster Payment System was launched earlier this month. To date 21 banks and 10 digital wallet have signed up for the system which includes well known names likes of Citibank, Hang Seng Bank, DBS, TNG Wallet, Alipay, WeChat Pay and Octopus.

"It seems to me that the old curse of a full-reserve bank, the necessity that it charge customers a recurring fee to recoup its high costs, has finally been reversed. In addition to providing a full range of transactional services, a full-reserve bank should finally (in theory, at least) be able to provide depositors with interest. "

The Pacific country of the Marshall Islands will be proceeding with its previously reported plan of launching its own virtual currency, without the blessing of the International Monetary Fund.

"In common with a bank, Monzo does provide demand deposits (it previously offered prepaid cards). Last year, it began offering customers current accounts and, according to its reports as of the end of February, had £71.3m of deposits on the liabilities side of its balance sheet. The assets side of the balance sheet, however, tells a very different story. Monzo’s deposits are held in overnight accounts at the Bank of England. In fact, as of its latest report, Monzo held £97m at the Bank of England, much more than the sum of its total deposits. This implies that a large portion of equity funding the company has received is currently sitting at the central bank."

The London Block Exchange has announced the launch of a GBP-pegged cryptocurrency stablecoin called LBXPeg. In a statement posted on its website, LBX revealed that the so-called “cryptopound” will be tied to the value of GBP held in an auditable U.K. bank account on a 1:1 basis.

Europe needs a wide-reaching, cheap and instant retail payment system to stop overseas competitors taking this market and the European Central Bank should consider taking a bigger role in the field, ECB board member Yves Mersch said on Wednesday.

"Now, as these new tokens begin to achieve liquidity on cryptocurrency exchanges, it appears as though the controversy surrounding tether — which heretofore has been the primary USD proxy on exchanges not authorized to list physical fiat currencies — is causing USDT to trade at a discount to its more intensely-regulated counterparts."

If these stablecoins are going to censor transactions, why not just avoid blockchains altogether and create a centralized and speedy alternative — something like, I don’t know, Paypal? Maybe someone can explain to me in the comments how all of this makes sense.

"The UAE’s first official credit bureau – emCredit – under the Dubai Department of Economic Development is pushing its official blockchain-encrypted state digital currency emCash for wider adoption by rolling out point-of-sale (PoS) devices at government storefronts across Dubai."

"Enabling central banks to issue digital fiat currency, the eCurrency technology powers an instrument that has the same legal tender status as banknotes and coins. Digital fiat currency is secure, transparent, and efficient. The digital payment instrument issued by the Central Bank infuses trust in all digital transactions."

"A panel constituted by India’s finance ministry might soon recommend that the country launch a government-backed cryptocurrency. “We are evaluating the government-backed cryptocurrency and crypto-token,” said a senior government official privy to the discussions of the panel. “And we are looking to develop and encourage our own research and development of blockchain technology,” the official added, referring to the digital infrastructure on which cryptocurrencies are based."

In late 2017, Poroshenko’s administration worked with BitFury Group Ltd., a U.S.-based blockchain company, to store government data. In September, Mushak introduced his crypto law in Parliament, and Ukrainian regulators are slowly getting behind the idea of moving cryptocurrencies out of the “gray zone” and into the legal financial world. A representative from the central bank said in a statement that it supports regulation and is exploring the idea of a national blockchain-based currency.