China could be contemplating a crypto comeback as one of the nation’s close neighbors adopts a more welcoming stance toward blockchain at large. In a newly published report, blockchain data platform Chainalysis found that recent crypto volume transferred to Hong Kong has rivaled that transferred to mainland China over the past year, despite hosting only 0.5% of the latter’s population. …
The Stellar Development Foundation, developers of the Stellar network, released a financial inclusion framework for judging the efficacy of emerging market blockchain projects. The framework was developed in cooperation with consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers International (PwC) and was explained in a white paper published on September 25. Using this framework, the teams concluded that blockchain payments solutions significantly increased access to financial…
A common argument made in favor of central bank digital currency (CBDC) is that it could boost financial inclusion. The nuances of how to accomplish that goal, or even what “financial inclusion” means, remain to be explored, a Bank of Canada discussion paper said. It concluded that central banks will face a range of unfamiliar and nontraditional challenges to create…
For years, Australian computer scientist Craig Wright has attempted, relatively unsuccessfully, to convince the world (and numerous courts of law) that he is in fact Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin. Now, the years-long saga has inspired a song—the fairly unsubtle single “Craig Wright Is Not Satoshi,” from the musician Jonathan Mann. “Craig Wright is not Satoshi,” the song’s…
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) announced the launch this week of an interactive, NFT-backed digital initiative designed to encourage users to experiment with creating art on the blockchain. The program, “MoMA Postcard,” will debut later this month. It will allow participants to send digital chain letters featuring 15 blank “stamps” across the blockchain to collaborators of their choosing. Together,…
The prosecuting attorneys in the criminal case against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, have started to call witnesses. According to an Oct. 4 X (formerly Twitter) thread by Inner City Press, the Assistant United States Attorneys presented testimony from a London-based cocoa broker named Marc-Antoine Julliard who used FTX for crypto trading. Julliard spoke on learning…
America is beyond broke. News broke today that the United States government added a precipitous $275 billion worth of debt in the past twenty-four hours–a number that surpasses half of Bitcoin’s entire market capitalization, which currently sits at $535 billion according to Coingecko. It also translates into $1,300 per American per day. The whopping quarter of a trillion dollars is…
Google Assistant will begin incorporating Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) chat service, Bard, into its responses “soon,” according to an October 4 social media post from the development team. Coming soon: #AssistantWithBard We can’t wait to show you our vision to deliver the world’s most helpful personal assistant. In the meantime, give Bard a try at https://t.co/5qtyBeWvge.#MadeByGoogle #Pixel pic.twitter.com/GK55yY7qSP — Made…
Bitcoin looked like a stablecoin compared to the U.S. Dollar Index on Oct. 4, with BTC price levels of interest close to the spot price. Source: https://cointelegraph.com/public/index.php/news/bitcoin-traders-27k-btc-price-volatile-us-dollar
In this week’s newsletter, read about how a nonfungible token (NFT) artist raised money to support a cancer charity and why payments platform PayPal has filed a patent application for an NFT marketplace. Check out Meta’s new photorealistic metaverse avatars and, in other news, learn why Neal Stephenson’s metaverse blockchain project remains optimistic despite waning interest. NFT artist raises $140,000…
