The Disrupt

“Twitter could soon enable users to tip content creators using bitcoin following the latest update to its “Tip Jar” feature. Code in Twitter’s latest beta suggests that support for bitcoin will be rolled out to the platform’s tipping service that was launched in May this year.

The update indicates that users will be given a tutorial in bitcoin, including details on the Lightning Network and custodial vs. non-custodial wallets. It also tells users that a Strike account is required to use the feature.

Twitter has also recently advertised job vacancies in its payments division for senior legal counsel and chief compliance officer, both preferring experience in crypto.”

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“Asset manager Franklin Templeton is staffing up to execute trades for bitcoin and ether, according to a series of job postings. The twin gigs highlight the $1.5 trillion firm’s newfound interest in crypto as an investable asset class.

The roles will be tasked with executing crypto strategies, building relationships with blockchain developer communities and creating new crypto products for the mutual fund issuer and money manager.”

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“Just three months after a non-fungible token (NFT) representing an image of the original Shiba Inu dogecoin meme sold for about $4 million, the NFT is now valued at more than $225 million after part of its ownership sold for over 11,000 ether.

Investors were able to boost the price of the doge NFT to a record high for NFTs in such a short time by fractionalizing it into nearly 17 billion tokens named DOG with 20% of the supply for sale via a 24-hour auction ended Thursday.

The event reflects investors’ rapidly growing demand for fractionalized ownership of NFTs, a new, easier way to participate in the increasingly pricey and volatile NFT market. But like all innovations, fractional ownership of NFTs also has risks.

By locking an NFT in a vault, the NFT fractionalization issuer has to bear the risk of potential hacks on smart contacts. The fractionalization issuer often maintains the majority ownership of the NFT, which means the minority owners need to be aware of potential “pump and dump” schemes.”

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“Texas House Bills 4474 and 1576 officially took effect on Sept. 1 after being signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott in June. H.B. 1576 establishes a blockchain working group in Texas, while H.B. 4474 amends the state’s Uniform Commercial Code to recognize cryptocurrencies under commercial law.

H.B. 4474 better defines the security interests for Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies to ‘allow institutional investors to get involved with sizable investments.‘

This means parties to transactions have clarity regarding their legal rights and obligations, judges have a roadmap to adjudicate disputes, and lenders know they have an enforceable lien on the crypto pledged as collateral for collateralized loans.

Texas became the 4th U.S. state, behind Wyoming, Rhode Island and Nebraska, to clarify the commercial law status of these assets.”

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“The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub is working with the central banks of Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa to test the efficacy of wholesale central bank digital currencies (CBDC) in cross-border settlements.

The goal of “Project Dunbar” is to develop prototype platforms that can support international settlements with digital currencies issued by multiple central banks. The project will focus on developing these prototypes on different distributed ledger technology platforms and experiment with various governance and operating designs that could help central banks to share CBDC infrastructures.

These multi-CBDC platforms will allow financial institutions to transact directly with each other in the digital currencies issued by participating central banks.”

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“The crypto market may struggle to survive in the U.S. outside the country’s regulatory framework, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler. Gensler reiterated his desire for crypto trading platforms to register with the SEC because a number of cryptocurrencies can be deemed as securities.

There are a lot of platforms that are in operation today that would do better engaging. Instead there is a bit of … begging for forgiveness rather than asking for permission.”

See Also: SEC’s Gensler Lays Out US Crypto Regulation Stance to European Parliament
See Also: Stablecoins Are ‘Pretending’ to Be Currencies: ECB’s Lagarde

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“Dongxing, spoke about the consensus of Chinese businesses to digitally transform the securities and futures industry. Blockchain technology can build a trust mechanism in the network environment, which will be key to the digitization of the securities and futures industry.

The Science and Technology Bureau will base the construction of the said blockchain on a two-tier structure: a chain of custody (for tamper-resistant forensic evidence of asset control and transfers) and business (smart contracts and supply chain).”

See Also: Red Date, MetaverseSociety Partner to Launch BSN Portal in S. Korea

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“Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has called on the government to mine cryptocurrency using spare power infrastructure.

The president said that Belarus has enough electricity resources to power cryptocurrency mining, pointing to abandoned industrial sites that could be used to generate revenue.”

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“Beginning Sept. 1, decentralized search engine Presearch will be listed as a default option on all new and factory-reset devices sold in the United Kingdom and Europe, a move that could erode Google’s dominance in the search engine market.

The company said daily searches have increased more than 300% since January 2021. All search engine requests are processed by Presearch node operators, who earn rewards through Ethereum-based PRE tokens.

The decision by Google to list Presearch as a default browser option follows a protracted legal battle with the European Commission over accusations that the technology company used Android to solidify its search engine dominance.

Brave, a crypto-powered web browser, [also] recently launched a new privacy-protecting beta search engine to provide users with an alternative to Google’s personal data harvesting.”