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Ripple Partners with Central Bank Digital Currency Think Tank

Ripple has partnered with the Digital Euro Association (DEA) to work together on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).

DEA, based in Frankfurt, Germany, is a think tank focused on CBDCs, stablecoins, cryptocurrencies and other forms of digital money.

The organization aims to influence policy related to CBDC and cryptocurrencies through research and providing a platform for policymakers, technologists and economists to discuss digital assets.

In a new announcement, it describes Ripple as a leader in its field, but does not provide exact details on what the partnership will entail.

“Ripple, a leading provider of enterprise blockchain and cryptographic solutions for cross-border payments, has recently developed a blockchain-based infrastructure to support CBDCs and is engaged with the central bank of Bhutan, among others, to help run its program pilot . of CBDC.

Ripple is also a member of the Digital Pound Foundation and continues to expand its efforts around CBDCs around the world. The DEA partnership with Ripple includes, but is not limited to, joint educational efforts around digital currencies and knowledge sharing.”

DEA President Jonas Gross said:

“We are delighted that, thanks to our partnership with Ripple, we are able to extend the technology experience of the DEA community. As more and more CBDC projects around the world reach advanced stages, the technological design of a CBDC will play a key role for policymakers in the near future, while previous years have mainly focused on research.”

Ripple also addressed the association in a tweet to his followers, saying that it was part of their overall goal to provide CBDC-related solutions on a global scale.

“We are excited to join the Digital Euro Association as a supporting partner to further develop our work with the CBDC!

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Switzerland’s biggest bank, UBS, expects US crypto legislation to delay

Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, expects the US Congress to take a long time to pass cryptocurrency legislation despite growing interest in cryptocurrency investments and regulators are asking Congress to review cryptocurrency legislation.

Congress could take a long time on cryptocurrency legislation

The biggest bank in Switzerland, UBS, published its point of view on EE crypto legislation. UU. last week after the Committee of the Chamber of Financial Services held a large audience on the regulation of cryptocurrencies and stable currencies.

The Swiss bank’s U.S. Office of Public Policy explained that at the hearing, a senior Treasury official discussed recommendations made in a stablecoin report issued by the Treasury Department and other regulators.

“To fill regulatory gaps and address financial stability concerns, regulators would like Congress to develop legislation that would regulate issuers of stablecoins such as banks,” the UBS team detailed, noting that this proposal has received approval from some lawmakers.

The Federal Reserve also made it clear in its recent report on central bank digital currency (CBDC) that it would welcome guidance from Congress before proceeding with a digital dollar.

However, Switzerland’s largest bank believes:

It will take time for policymakers to digest the complexities of these issues and reconcile potentially divergent approaches to how digital assets should be regulated.

The UBS team further detailed: “Regulators can wait a long time for Congressional action, and in the meantime, they will have to deal with these issues using the limited and imperfect authorities they already have.”

However, the bank noted that interest in cryptocurrencies “is growing in Congress and among the general public.”

Additionally, there are reports that the Biden government may assess cryptocurrency legislation with an executive order in the near future.

In August of last year, US Senator Ted Cruz criticized his colleagues in Congress for trying to regulate cryptocurrency without understanding what it is.

The Texas senator said, “We shouldn’t regulate something we don’t understand yet. In fact, we should take the time to try to understand this. We must have some audiences, we must consider the consequences… We must not destroy people’s lives and livelihoods out of sheer ignorance”.

Meanwhile, two federal agencies, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), are collaborating to ensure investor protection in the crypto space.

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Uber CEO Recognizes Possible Integration of Crypto Payments

Uber Technologies CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently made statements that the ride-sharing company will accept cryptocurrencies in the future as the industry becomes “environmentally friendly” and less expensive.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Khosrowshahi said that the company “at some point” will accept cryptocurrencies, but acknowledged that he still has reservations about it because the “cryptocurrency exchange mechanism is expensive”, adding that such a method is also “not good for the environment”. .”

Khosrowshahi says Uber is still evaluating integrating cryptocurrency payments for its ride-sharing services, which have a global presence.

“Will Uber accept cryptocurrencies in the future? Absolutely. At some point. This is not the right time, but we will.” Khosrowshahi notes.

The executive noted that Bitcoin, along with other cryptocurrencies, has become valuable over time. Khosrowshahi is known as one of the early advocates of Bitcoin. During his 12-year tenure at Expedia, a travel booking platform, Khosrowshahi made the platform one of the first major merchants to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment in 2014.

“I think now what we see with bitcoin and some of the other [cryptocurrencies] is that they are quite valuable as a store of value,” Khosrowshahi said. “As the exchange mechanism becomes less expensive and more eco-friendly, I think you will see us leaning a little more towards cryptocurrencies.” he adds.

Uber has not made any definitive statements on the matter, other than those mentioned by its boss. Since its inception, Uber has not made any moves in the crypto space. Notably, however, Uber co-founder Oscar Salazar moved into the cryptocurrency industry by founding Voyager, a cryptocurrency exchange, in July 2018.

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PayPal Establishes Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Advisory Board

“We believe it is crucial to engage with the world’s best leaders to better understand the industry’s most compelling opportunities and complex challenges,” said José Fernández da Ponte.

Leading US payment processor PayPal has assembled a team of industry experts to act as advisors on crypto, blockchain, and digital currencies.

In an announcement Tuesday, PayPal said that adding six members to its Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Digital Currency advisory board would help support its current and future products, as well as its goal of creating a more inclusive digital financial ecosystem. Fortress Investment Group Co-CEO Peter Briger, Georgetown University Law Center Professor Chris Brummer, Weizmann Institute of Science Professor Shafi Goldwasser, Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman, Timothy Massad, MIT Sloan School of Management Professor of Finance Antoinette Schoar, and the director of the MIT Digital Currency Initiative. Neha Narula will join the PayPal initiative.

“We believe it is crucial to engage with the world’s best leaders to better understand the most compelling opportunities and complex challenges in the industry,” said José Fernández da Ponte, senior vice president and general manager of blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital currencies at PayPal.

All six advisors have years of experience in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space from a business or regulatory perspective. Briger would have been responsible for advising Softbank Group founder Masayoshi Son to invest millions in Bitcoin (BTC) before the 2017 bull run. Goldwasser was part of a group of MIT researchers who proposed the zero-knowledge proof as an encryption scheme long before the advent. of cryptography.

During her time with the MIT Digital Currency Initiative, Narula was responsible for an initiative to help the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston build a digital currency intended to scale for consumer use. Brummer would have been a CFTC presidential candidate before President Joe Biden officially nominated Rostin Behnam. Massad, who served as CFTC chairman from 2014 to 2017, argued after leaving his post that regulators should approve an exchange-traded fund offering exposure to BTC.

It is unclear whether the advisory group is aiming to expand PayPal’s foray into cryptocurrencies and the blockchain. The payments app announced in October 2020 that it would allow US-based customers to purchase crypto through the platform, later expanding that offering to include crypto payments at millions of its global merchants. The company plans to launch its own stablecoin called PayPal Coin.

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Jumaane Williams: New York Should Not Be Involved In Cryptocurrency Mining

Jumaane Williams, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate seeking a seat in New York, says he wants to end much of the cryptocurrency mining taking place in the Big Apple. While he’s not entirely against cryptocurrency mining, he says he wants most facilities to shut down so they can have time to reassess all the energy they’re using.

Williams wants NY to take a ‘mining break’

Williams made the announcement at a warehouse in the Finger Lakes, where the Greenidge Generation plant recently opened its facilities for a bitcoin mining project. He worries that cryptocurrency mining uses a lot of electricity and believes that the sand is leading the planet into a dark hole that it is unlikely to come out of in the future.

In an interview, Williams said:

We have to have the will to force these companies, if that's what they're going to do, they have to do it in a more climate-friendly way.

Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is how Eric Adams, the newly elected mayor of New York City, will take this news if Williams becomes governor of the state. Adams has shown himself in recent weeks to be a big fan of cryptocurrencies, converting several of his municipal checks into bitcoin and Ethereum through Coinbase.

He often jokes online with Francis Suarez, the mayor of Miami, about which city is the most promising for the future of cryptocurrencies. Adams also stated that he wants bitcoin and blockchain technology to be taught in New York public schools so that children can be prepared for the future of payments.

With such a strict ban on cryptocurrency mining and related activities, Adams could face a political enemy within his own party.

But to be fair to Williams, he has a lot of people on his side, including mega-industry bosses like Tesla’s Elon Musk. About a year ago, the South African businessman shocked the world by announcing that he would allow the purchase of electric vehicles with bitcoin. From there, the coin rose to around $57,000 per unit, the highest in history, with many convinced that a new crypto threshold had been crossed.

End of BTC payments for car buyers

Sadly, things didn’t last, as just a few weeks later, Musk claimed that he was rescinding the decision because he wasn’t sure bitcoin miners were using their energy well and didn’t want to be responsible for the destruction of the planet.

Kevin O’Leary of “Shark Tank” fame was also quick to join the conversation. He said that he would no longer buy bitcoins mined in China, as the country was not known for employing environmentally friendly mining methods.