Elon Musk’s X moves closer to crypto payments with new state license
X (Twitter) has been granted seven U.S. money transmitter licenses as it marches forward into the financial services sector. The license is required for companies conducting financial activities on behalf of users related to sending and receiving money — a definition that includes both fiat and crypto assets. Approval will allow X to custody, transfer and exchange digital currencies in the states in which it is licensed. Sources have suggested that X’s upcoming payments feature will initially only offer support for fiat currencies, but Musk has reportedly instructed developers at X to build the platform’s payments system so that crypto functionality can be added in the future. [Read more at Coin Telegraph]
IBM on the implementation of the digital euro
IBM published a paper that set out what it believes it will take for a successful digital euro. For initial acceptance it should be simple and easy to use, and operate with other well established payment methods, besides commercial models, costs and innovations. For the long-term success, foundations for innovations need to be built, particularly for strong privacy, uniform digital payments including support for virtual worlds and tokenized economies. Key elements for the acceptance will be the active support by intermediaries, and digital euro components that integrate well with the incumbents’ existing infrastructures. Also, the digital euro should allow strong privacy for low-value proximity payments, independent of technical connectivity. Finally, IBM believes the platform should be built on distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) but centrally governed by the central bank. [Read more at IBM]
*For those interested in intra-day updates, check out my searchable Diigo Fintech developments database, which is also a good place to go to query for past developments: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/ART.
Kiffmeister’s central bank digital currency monthly monitor
Just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So (only) if you work at a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and who would like to receive it by email on the first business day of every month, please DM me on LinkedIn or email me at chronicles@kiffmeister.com.
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