“Powell is very much on the traditional side of finance, but some of his recent comments have been forward-looking and his very attendance signals recognition of the importance of digital currencies.
There are a number of ways that a CBDC might improve the payments system, and it is mainly this area that motivates our interest.
We do think it’s more important to get it right than to be the first.”
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“Its main conclusion appeared to be that a CBDC should be viewed as another tool in currency issuance or monetary policy, rather than a panacea for every world economy.
CBDCs may benefit countries looking to exert greater control over their monetary policy but aren’t a solution for every crisis. A CBDC is not a one-size-fits-all solution for lackluster economies, and it won’t save nations with high inflation or similar domestic issues.
If the local currency suffers from instability and provides a poor unit of account, issuing CBDC is unlikely to change that. More broadly, the case for CBDC issuance is likely to depend on country circumstances.”
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“According to Reuters, early users of the trial digital currency feel the central bank has more to do if it wants them to switch over from existing payments apps like Alipay.
Polled users found the option less convenient and wouldn’t use the CBDC again unless it was provided through another giveaway. Infrastructure was similar to those from Alipay and WeChat Pay, which have been ‘out for a long time.’
With the central bank playing catch-up to existing providers, it may have to offer incentives to grow adoption of the digital coinage when it finally launches.”
“Harmon’s case is notable because it is the first time the U.S. Department of Justice explicitly called bitcoin mixing a “crime.” Such a classification could mean far-reaching legal troubles for any service that uses obfuscation tactics to conceal bitcoin’s publicly accessible path.
Prosecutors allege Harmon was running an unregistered money services business in violation of the Banking Secrecy Act. They say he had a responsibility to file suspicious activity reports and systemically flouted U.S. money laundering laws.
Harmon’s bitcoin mixing services allegedly laundered tens of millions of dollars in crypto for darknet markets including Abraxas, Agora, Hansa, Hydra and Wall Street Market.”
“Five of its largest miners turned off a significant portion of their machines to due to the project’s economic model that requires a significant amount of FIL tokens to start mining operations.
In response to miners’ concerns, Filecoin has decided to release 25% token rewards in advance once a miner builds a block on the blockchain. ‘The revision could enable 80% of our mining capacity.’
Miners have been complaining about Filecoin’s mining economic model long before the mainnet launch and suggested that they should fork the project.”
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“In order to take advantage of the burgeoning DeFi market, Dash holders must send tokens to StakeHound, which will then instantly generate and send back a wrapped ERC-20 representation called stakedDASH.
StakedDASH will be tradable and usable in major DeFi platforms such as UniSwap, Aave, Curve and others.
Meanwhile, the Dash tokens held by StakeHound will be held in a masternode and earn the standard rate of network rewards, which will be issued to users as additional stakedDASH.”
“GAMEE, which claims to have over 20 million registered users, is a platform for “hyper casual” games. GAMEE will have its own Ethereum-based token for users to earn while they play.
GAMEE Token is a fungible, ERC-20 token, and beyond its planned reward functionality, it can also be used to pay fees for tournament entries and will be used for governance voting as well. GAMEE is also working on a non-fungible token system that will unlock additional content and boosts in supported games, with users able to spend their GAMEE Tokens on the GAMEE NFTs.”
The Disrupt 