Month: September 2021

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (09/20/2021)

~ kiffmeister

Coinbase now allows instant cash outs of up to $100,000

By integrating with The Clearing House’s new Real Time Payments (RTP) network, Coinbase can now offer customers in the United States with linked banks accounts instant 24/7 withdrawals up to $100,000. Many customers who withdraw funds opt for Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfers, which can take up to 5 days to move through the pipes of the traditional financial network. Instant cash outs via RTP let them get their money in seconds, 24/7, without the high costs of uncapped fees. Plus, there are no limits on the number of times they can cash out per day. However, there is a fee of 1.5% of the transaction amount for anything up to $10,000 (anything over $10,000 is a flat fee of $150). 

To get these updates sent to your inbox, please sign up here. Also, for those interested in intra-day updates and news that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, please check out my Diigo fintech bookmarks: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/Fintech.

September 28-30 CordaCon Conference

At the September 28-30 CordaCon2021, I’ll be providing an overview of recent retail CBDC developments. You can register for the event here: https://www.cordacon.com

October 4-6 CBDC Conference

On October 4 I’ll be providing an overview of international work on retail CBDC and evolving thinking on motivations, system design and safeguards at The CBDC Conference. You can register for this and the full three-day (October 4-6) event here: https://www.cbdc-conference.com/index.php

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (09/17/2021)

~ kiffmeister

China’s e-CNY rollout enters ‘sprint stage’ for Beijing Winter Olympics

People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Deputy Governor Fan Yifei said the infrastructure construction for e-CNY use during the Winter Olympics has entered a “sprint stage.” Fan also said e-CNY preparation teams at the Olympic venues “should heighten their sense of mission and urgency, and push ahead with the pilot work in a solid and orderly manner with a strict and meticulous attitude.”  

Avalanche (AVAX) just hit a new ATH, but what’s really behind the price surge?

Avalanche (AVAX) hit a new all-time high of $68.89 on September 16, following the announcement that several large funds, and a group of angel investors and family offices, took part in a $230-million funding round for the project. The layer-one protocol which hopes challenge Ethereum’s dominance among smart contract platforms, is capable of surpassing 4,500 transactions per second with a time to finality of less than 2 seconds. Also, the Avalanche network is cross-chain compatible with Ethereum.

El Salvador brings Chivo ATMs to the US

El Salvador has brought its commission-free Chivo bitcoin ATMs to several U.S. cities, a move aimed at making it easier and cheaper to send remittances abroad to friends and family in the Central American country. There are now 50 of them in 10 U.S. locations where local legislation permits them. However, there are none in the greater Washington, D.C. area, which has one of the largest Salvadoran populations. 

To get these updates sent to your inbox, please sign up here. Also, for those interested in intra-day updates and news that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, please check out my Diigo fintech bookmarks: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/Fintech.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (09/16/2021)

~ kiffmeister

El Salvador brings Chivo ATMs to the US

El Salvador has brought its commission-free Chivo bitcoin ATMs to several U.S. cities, a move aimed at making it easier and cheaper to send remittances abroad to friends and family in the Central American country. There are now 50 of them in 10 U.S. locations where local legislation permits them. However, there are none in the greater Washington, D.C. area, which has one of the largest Salvadoran populations. 

To get these updates sent to your inbox, please email me at kiffmeister@protonmail.com. Also, for those interested in intra-day updates and news that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, please check out my Diigo fintech bookmarks: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/Fintech.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (09/15/2021)

~ kiffmeister

Turkish central bank taps local tech firms for digital currency R&D

The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) continues to research the potential benefits of introducing a digital Turkish lira. As part of the Digital Turkish Lira Collaboration Platform, the CBRT has signed of memoranda of understanding with three domestic research and technology companies. With these firms, the CBRT will develop a prototype “Digital Turkish Lira Network” and run limited closed-circuit pilot tests. Based on the results of those tests, the CBRT will unveil advanced phases of the pilot study that will reflect a broader participation. The CBRT has made no final decision regarding the issuance of the digital Turkish lira.  

Reserve Bank of Australia posts CBDC job position

The Reserve Bank of Australia has posted a job advertisement for multiple positions within its new central bank digital currency (CBDC) research team. The cross-disciplinary team is researching “whether there is a case for a CBDC in Australia, and if so, how it might be designed and what benefits and other implications it would have.” But before all of you CBDC experts get too excited, it’s only open to Australian residents, so good luck filling those positions! 

Solana crashes, SOL prices tumble as network scrambles to restart

Solana’s blockchain network went down on September 14, after large increase in transaction load to 400,000 per second overwhelmed the network, creating a denial-of-service that caused the network to start forking. Shortly thereafter, Solana’s validator community opted to restart the network, providing the rest of the community with instructions on how to do this via its Twitter feed and its Discord channel. The network restart was successful and supporting systems were up and running early the next day. Solana is a top-ten crypto-asset by market capitalization (currently #7 at about $47 billion.) 

Tether says it doesn’t hold any commercial paper issued by Evergrande

USDT stablecoin issuer Tether reportedly said that it doesn’t hold any commercial paper or other debt or securities issued by the embattled Chinese real estate giant Evergrande. In China, there are serious concerns about Evergrande, which has run up a $300 billion debt and is struggling to pay interest. If the company were to collapse, it would have a huge impact on the financial system. 

DTCC to begin development of DLT-based settlement system

The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is to move into the development phase of a prototype settlement platform (“Project Ion”) based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) that could act as the precursor to a US move to a same day settlement cycle. With six months of testing of the proof of concept now complete, DTCC says it has the quantitative data and qualitative feedback to build out a production-ready workflow and a roadmap for future full industry integration and adoption. The first phase, anticipated to be launched in Q1 2022, will support bilateral deliver order transactions that will be initiated by pilot participants through client nodes hosted by DTCC. Once launched, the transactions will be processed through the Project Ion platform and then passed to DTC’s existing systems for settlement processing. 

To get these updates sent to your inbox, please email me at kiffmeister@protonmail.com. Also, for those interested in intra-day updates and news that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, please check out my Diigo fintech bookmarks: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/Fintech.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (09/14/2021)

~ kiffmeister

Deutsche Boerse-owned Eurex debuts Bitcoin futures trading

Germany’s Eurex derivatives exchange launched its euro-denominated Bitcoin exchange-traded note (ETN) Futures contract. It is based on London-based ETC Group’s centrally cleared BTCetc Physical Bitcoin (BTCE) Bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP). The futures contract allows investors to track the price development of Bitcoin in a regulated environment and will be physically delivered in BTCE, which is 100% backed by Bitcoin and can be instantly converted by any investor into the underlying BTC.  

Digitalization and Taxation in Asia

This International Monetary Fund (IMF) paper discusses how digitalization has affected Asian economies and their corporate income tax (CIT) and value-added tax (VAT) systems. Digitalization raises new tax challenges and existing rules can be perceived as unfair. Existing income tax systems have been criticized as failing to confer taxing rights on jurisdictions where highly digitalized businesses have a large base of customers that generate value, but where they have no physical presence. Increasingly digitalized businesses may also have relatively more intangible assets, which are harder to value and easier to relocate, enabling profit shifting under existing rules. This may especially affect smaller, less developed economies. 

The paper concludes that, for many Asian countries, additional efforts in taxation are necessary to meet their revenue mobilization needs. International tax reform towards greater destination-based income taxation in combination with a global minimum tax would ease pressures from international tax competition and allow countries to raise corporate income tax rates if desired. Further revenue mobilization efforts might be required to finance future spending needs. These could focus on broadening the tax base by removing tax holidays, exemptions, and other preferential tax treatments. These are common in developing Asia but are often ineffective and inefficient and could even become redundant under a global minimum tax. 

To get these updates sent to your inbox, please email me at kiffmeister@protonmail.com. Also, for those interested in intra-day updates and news that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, please check out my Diigo fintech bookmarks: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/Fintech.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (09/13/2021)

~ kiffmeister

China’s central bank reports progress, challenges on e-CNY adoption

People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Deputy Governor Fan Yifei provided a progress report on the PBOC’s e-CNY central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot project. So far there have been no technical glitches, but the PBOC is working to support the connection between e-CNY and traditional payment systems and the connection between e-CNY digital wallets and bank accounts. He also mentioned that regulations need to be improved and optimized. For example, setting the boundaries between account- and value-based transactions may need to be refined (account-based transfers are large-scale transfers, while value-based transfers are smaller offline P2P payments). According to Richard Turrin, a Shanghai-based fintech consultant who recently published Cashless: China’s Digital Currency Revolution, “One big issue… would be what limit to put on value-based transfers to make them cash-like especially for rural users.”  

China explores using blockchain for digital yuan CBDC issuance

Di Gang, Deputy Director of the PBOC Digital Currency Research Institute, reportedly said the central bank is exploring using distributed ledger technology (DLT) at the e-CNY issuance layer. Until now, the PBOC has been working with a centralized ledger technology approach because of DLT’s immaturity, performance, and scalability challenges. However, he acknowledged that perhaps these can be addressed using sidechains, multichain architectures and hardware acceleration.  

Cardano launches smart contracts after successful hard fork

On August 12 Cardano’s “Alonzo” hard fork was completed successfully. The fork enables smart contracts to be written using Plutus scripts, a purpose-built smart contract development language and execution platform using the functional programming language Haskell. 

To get these updates sent to your inbox, please email me at kiffmeister@protonmail.com. Also, for those interested in intra-day updates and news that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, please check out my Diigo fintech bookmarks: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/Fintech.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (09/12/2021)

~ kiffmeister ~ 1 Comment

I’ve updated my tabulation of retail central bank digital currency (#CBDC) explorers to include Guatemala and Honduras on the “unconfirmed” list. I now count/name 60 central banks. According to the end-2020 Bank for International Settlements (BIS) survey, 56 of the 65 central banks they surveyed are doing some kind of CBDC exploration, although that number includes wholesale CBDC experiments, plus they count every country separately, whereas I lump currency zones countries together (e.g., they count France, Germany, etc., separately, whereas I lump them and other Eurozone countries together). 

Also, a February 2021 survey of International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission chiefs suggested that CBDC are being closely analyzed, piloted, or likely to be issued in 111 member countries, although I believe that also includes wholesale CBDC and multiple counts currency zone countries. 

Another reason why my count might be lower is that I actually list the countries, whereas the BIS and IMF don’t. And I only list countries who’s CBDC explorations I can confirm based on publicly-available information, ideally from the relevant central bank websites. 

September 28-30 CordaCon Conference

At the September 28-30 @inside_r3 #CordaCon2021, I’ll be providing an overview of recent retail #CBDC developments. You can register for the event here: https://www.cordacon.com

October 4-6 CBDC Conference

On October 4 I’ll be providing an overview of international work on retail CBDC and evolving thinking on motivations, system design and safeguards at The CBDC Conference. You can register for this and the full three-day (October 4-6) event here: https://www.cbdc-conference.com/index.php

To get these updates sent to your inbox, please email me at kiffmeister@protonmail.com. Also, for those interested in intra-day updates and news that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, please check out my Diigo fintech bookmarks: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/Fintech.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (09/10/2021)

~ kiffmeister

Central banks of Honduras, Guatemala eye digital currencies

The central banks of Honduras and Guatemala are reportedly studying digital currencies with the aim of eventually introducing them into the economy, including via a central bank digital currency (CBDC). 

CSBS Releases Model for the Future of Payments Regulation

The US Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) released the Uniform Money Transmission Modernization Act for state adoption as part of states’ broader effort to modernize the state financial regulatory system. Also known as the Money Transmitter Model Law, it aims to replace 50 sets of state-specific money transmitter laws and rules with one single set of nationwide standards and requirements. 

SIX Digital Exchange receives FINMA approval

SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) formally received the go-ahead from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to operate a stock exchange and a central securities depository for digital assets in Switzerland. This authorization enables SDX to go live with a fully regulated, integrated trading, settlement, and custody infrastructure based on distributed ledger technology for digital securities. 

Nasdaq Data to Aid Blockchain-Based Tokenized Stock Trading

The Nasdaq stock exchange, along with Finnhub and Tiingo, will deliver price feeds to DeFiChain, a blockchain-based service offering the 24/7 trading of tokenized stocks. The tokenized stocks will be collateralized by crypto-assets, including DeFiChain’s DFI native digital currency. 

Countdown to Cardano’s Hard Fork

Cardano will hard fork on September 12, at which point the crypto-asset will get functional smart contracts. These can be used for decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other types of decentralized applications (Dapps). Cardano has managed to capture the third-largest crypto market capitalization among 10,000+ crypto assets. 

Algorand sets up $330 million fund that’s focused on DeFi

Algorand created a decentralized finance (DeFi) fund, in the form of 150 million ALGO tokens, to be handed out to potential projects to encourage growth of DeFi on Algorand. Also, Harmony, a blockchain platform designed for running Ethereum applications, similarly announced a $300 million fund, focused on attracting projects that are already running on other blockchains.  

September 28-30 CordaCon Conference

At the September 28-30 CordaCon2021, I’ll be providing an overview of recent retail CBDC developments. You can register for the event here: https://www.cordacon.com.

October 4-6 CBDC Conference

On October 4 I’ll be providing an overview of international work on retail CBDC and evolving thinking on motivations, system design and safeguards at The CBDC Conference. You can register for this and the full three-day (October 4-6) event here: https://www.cbdc-conference.com/index.php

To get these updates sent to your inbox, please email me at kiffmeister@protonmail.com. Also, for those interested in intra-day updates and news that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, please check out my Diigo fintech bookmarks: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/Fintech.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (09/09/2021)

~ kiffmeister

Roxe hires ex-IMF economist to lead blockchain-based CBDC project

Global payment network Roxe has recruited Andreas Jobst, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) Senior Economist. As Roxe’s chief currency economist, Jobst will be tasked with helping to scale Roxe’s blockchain-based central bank digital currency (CBDC) project. The CBDC Plus Program appears to be a wholesale CBDC designed for cross-border interoperability among financial institutions.  

October 4-6 CBDC Conference

On October 4 I’ll be providing an overview of international work on retail CBDC and evolving thinking on motivations, system design and safeguards at The CBDC Conference. You can register for this comprehensive three-day (October 4-6) event here: https://www.cbdc-conference.com/index.php

To get these updates sent to your inbox, please email me at kiffmeister@protonmail.com. Also, for those interested in intra-day updates and news that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, please check out my Diigo fintech bookmarks: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/Fintech.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (09/08/2021)

~ kiffmeister

SEC Threatens to Sue Coinbase Over High Interest Crypto Product

“The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a “Wells notice” warning that it will sue Coinbase if it moves forward with a plan to offer a new product called Lend that would pay stablecoin owners 4% interest on their savings. Coinbase touted the product as a way for crypto owners to earn far high interest than what is offered at regular banks, and promised to offer a “peace of mind” guarantee as a substitute for the FDIC insurance that comes with traditional interest-bearing accounts.”  

To get these updates sent to your inbox, please email me at kiffmeister@protonmail.com. Also, for those interested in intra-day updates and news that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, please check out my Diigo fintech bookmarks: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/Fintech.