Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20231012)*

October 12, 2023October 12, 2023 ~ kiffmeister

JPMorgan debuts blockchain collateral settlement in BlackRock-Barclays trade

JPMorgan has debuted its in-house blockchain-based tokenization application, the Tokenized Collateral Network (TCN) as it settled its first trade for BlackRock. The TCN, using blockchain technology, allows investors to transfer collateral ownership without moving assets in underlying ledgers. It was used by BlackRock to turn shares in one of its money market funds into digital tokens, which were then transferred to Barclays as collateral for an over-the-counter derivatives trade between the two institutions. [Read more at Bloomberg]

Esma assesses market developments in DeFi and smart contracts

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published two articles on decentralized finance (DeFi), one on developments and risks in the European Union (EU) market and another on a methodology for the categorization of smart contracts. The article on DeFi warns of serious risks to investor protection, because of the highly speculative nature of many arrangements and important operational and security vulnerabilities. DeFi’s unique features have led to new market manipulation issues that need to be addressed. [Read more at Finextra]

*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

The Sovereign Official Digital Association (SODA) is a technology-agnostic firm offering advisory services at the intersection of central banking, digital finance and the web3 industry, aiming to make public digital money a reality. SODA believes institutions in the existing financial ecosystem should have access to the tools and resources they need to move from discussion to action. SODA offers ‘real life’ use cases to help test digital money and drive adoption as central banks and other public institutions explore the future of a more financially inclusive world powered by interoperable blockchain-based networks. SODA would love you to join us on this journey – please get in touch (chris@sodapublicmoney.org).

Satoshi Capital Advisors is a New York-based, global advisory firm that works with central banks, governments, and the private sector to architect, implement, and operate varying initiatives. Satoshi Capital Advisors’ central bank work revolves around CBDC architecture and implementation, providing advisory services from research phase through to growth phase. Utilizing a product-market fit and technology agnostic approach to CBDC architecture and implementation enables Satoshi Capital Advisors to build tailored solutions, bespoke to local financial system nuances. Satoshi Capital Advisors welcomes requests from central bank officials for virtual and in-person CBDC workshops. [Click here for more information]

WhisperCash offers the first fully offline digital currency platform that has the same properties as physical cash. It can perform secure consecutive offline payments without compromising on security, privacy or accessibility. WhisperCash allows direct person to person offline payments without any server infrastructure or internet connectivity. It comes in various form factors including the self-contained credit card-sized “Pro” that sports an eInk screen and capacitive keyboard, and lasts for two weeks between recharges assuming a few transactions per day. [Click here for more information]

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20231005)*

October 4, 2023October 5, 2023 ~ kiffmeister

Bank of Canada: Central banks will face unfamiliar challenges to achieve CBDC inclusivity

The Bank of Canada published a paper that explores quantitative and qualitative information about Canadians who face barriers to making digital payments, and implications for a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC). It identified three types of inclusion necessary for a universally accessible payment method: financial inclusion, digital inclusion and practical accessibility. The challenge is in the delivery of services rather than product design, and private financial institutions may not be incentivized to address the needs of those who are underserved. However, overcoming those challenges will require central banks to face problems that would otherwise be considered far from their scope of interest. [Read more at the Bank of Canada]

Project Mandala: shaping the future of cross-border payments compliance

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the central banks of Australia, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore launched Project Mandala, which explores the feasibility of encoding policy and regulatory requirements into a common protocol for cross-border use cases such as foreign direct investment, borrowing and payments. It aims to ease the policy and regulatory compliance burden by automating compliance procedures, providing real-time transaction monitoring and increasing transparency and visibility around country-specific policies. [Read more at the BIS]

Hong Kong Stock Exchange launches settlement platform powered by smart contracts

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is launching “Synapse,” a platform that will utilize smart contracts to streamline post-trade flows and enhance operational efficiencies. It will be deployed on Stock Connect, an HKEX channel that enables international investors to access more than 1,000 mainland Chinese stocks through routing in Hong Kong. HKEX will be linked to Hong Kong’s Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation through its Institutional Trade Processing service, allowing for the central matching of cross-border transactions. Settlement instructions are then automatically generated and sent back to the Synapse platform, thus enhancing the trade confirmation workflow. [Read more at Coin Telegraph]

Project Atlas: mapping the world of decentralized finance

The BIS Innovation Hub, De Nederlandsche Bank and the Deutsche Bundesbank jointly launched Project Atlas, which creates a data platform that sheds light on the macroeconomic relevance of crypto-asset markets and decentralized finance (DeFi). A first proof of concept of Project Atlas was developed focusing on international flows of crypto-assets. The initial findings indicate that, although relatively small compared with total on-chain network traffic, identified flows between crypto exchanges are significant and substantial economically. Attributing geographical areas to exchanges (where possible) lays out the structure of cross-border flows. Thus, Project Atlas provides a starting point for structural analysis across jurisdictions. [Read more at the BIS]

Kiffmeister’s central bank digital currency monthly monitor

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20230908)*

September 8, 2023September 8, 2023 ~ kiffmeister

Hong Kong expands trial of China’s digital yuan to more banks

Hong Kong is reportedly actively testing China’s digital yuan and has entered the second phase of technical testing to incorporate a predominant local payment system. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) have completed the initial technical tests for cross-border payments using the digital yuan in Hong Kong. Currently, they are conducting the second phase of the technical trial, involving more Hong Kong banks and testing the digital yuan wallet’s top-up function through the Faster Payment System. [Read more at The Block]

Circle says its USDC stablecoin was as diversified as possible. Is that accurate?

JP Koning published an article that debunks Circle’s claim that the reserves backing its USDC stablecoin were “as diversified as possible” prior to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, in which $3.3 billion (8% of reserves) was held in the form of uninsured deposits. Circle blames banking for its woes, which is “extremely difficult” for crypto firms, but Paxos doesn’t seem to be having the same problem with its USDP stablecoin. $185.5 million were spread over thousands of banks using deposit placement networks like IntraFi, and were thus insured by the government. For the remainder, Paxos obtained $72 million worth private insurance. Only $10.9 million in deposits were effectively unprotected, a small 1.3% sliver of USDP’s total assets. JP askes, rather than keeping 8% of its assets lodged at a second tier bank without insurance, why didn’t Circle follow Paxos’s risk reduction strategy? [Read more at Moneyness]

Fortune magazine published a behind-the-scenes account of Circle’s Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) trials and tribultations. Circle’s management “devised a plan A, B, and C. The first failed when Circle’s attempted wire to get out its deposits didn’t go through. [They] remained optimistic that the government would guarantee its deposits—plan B. In case that didn’t work out, the executives spent the weekend negotiating deals with companies who would buy Circle’s SVB holdings for $0.85 on the dollar, which, along with Circle’s own balance sheet, would be enough to restore USDC’s reserves.” [Read more at Fortune]

IOSCO consults on global DeFi regulation. Targets MEV, developers

The International Organization of Security Commissions (IOSCO) published a report on the regulation of decentralized finance (DeFi). It makes nine recommendations that include analyzing the DeFi protocol, identifying responsible persons and mapping functionality to existing regulated activities. The proposed recommendations are principles-based and outcomes-focused, and aimed at DeFi products, services, arrangements, and activities by applying IOSCO’s widely accepted global standards for securities markets regulation. [Read more at IOSCO]

The oracle problem and the future of DeFi

The BIS published a paper on the role of oracles to import real-world data into blockchain-based decentralized finance (DeFi) environments for use in smart contracts. Smart contracts in DeFi rely on accurate reporting of real-world events to function correctly. The oracle problem poses a challenge of incorporating reliable real-world information into DeFi applications while maintaining the core principles of decentralization: trustlessness and no single point of failure. It underscores a notable limitation of DeFi, which requires sacrificing trust in intentions (whether individuals or institutions are fair and ethical) that cannot be fully captured by consensus protocols. This restricts the scope of DeFi to communities that are willing to rely solely on trust in competence. [Read more at the BIS]

Kiffmeister’s central bank digital currency monthly monitor

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20230906)*

September 6, 2023September 6, 2023 ~ kiffmeister

Blockchain privacy and regulatory compliance: towards a practical equilibrium

Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin has co-authored a paper on a smart contract-based protocol designed to reconcile financial privacy with regulatory compliance. The core idea is to allow users to publish a zero-knowledge proof, demonstrating that their funds (do not) originate from known (un-)lawful sources, without publicly revealing their entire transaction transaction history. This is achieved by proving membership in custom association sets (“privacy pools”) that satisfy certain properties, required by regulation or social consensus. [Read more on SSRN]

Bank of Canada explores impact of quantum computing on CBDCs

The Bank of Canada has engaged evolutionQ for a research project involving quantum-safe cybersecurity technologies for greenfield digital currencies. The Bank of Canada is exploring technologies and technical ecosystems that may inform decisions relating to the development of a potential digital loonie. The evolutionQ research will explore the impact of integrating quantum-safe encryption methods and crypto-agility as design goals for central bank digital currency (CBDC). The code developed during the research will be released as open source to give developers and researchers the opportunity to explore the new cryptographic methods. [Read more at evolutionQ]

Kiffmeister’s central bank digital currency monthly monitor

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20221105)

November 5, 2022November 5, 2022 ~ kiffmeister

A Multi-Currency Exchange and Contracting Platform

The IMF published a working paper that presents a vision for a multilateral platform that could improve cross-border payments, as well as related FX transactions, risk sharing, and more generally, financial contracting. It proposes a design that centralizes payments and settlement and that integrates functionality needed for cross-border transactions: streamlining compliance, reducing the cost of FX conversion, and better managing financial risks. The paper also shows how new technologies can be leveraged to better organize payments and associated financial markets. These new technologies are ledgers with unique states, programmability that allows for smart contracts, and encryption which ensures privacy, and can alleviate the underlying obstacles to trade. These technologies allow the design of a multilateral exchange system where participants can truthfully share information with smart contracts but can retain privacy relative to other parties. [Read more at IMF.org]

Payments, money and finance in the digital era (Part 1 and Part 2)

Two recent papers by Christian Pfister examine the state of play and short- to long-term prospects for payments, money and finance in the digital era. The first paper focuses on short- to medium term developments, and two forms of public sector, intervention; regulatory and production-based. He argues that the regulatory approach should be considered against the potential costs, like the creation of barriers to entry and protection of established players, which makes it ambiguous from the point of view of competition. Production-based intervention, such as the introduction of central bank digital currency (CBDC), aiming to provide an alternative to private supply is much stronger than regulation, and has its own ambiguities. Hence, before intervening, the public authority should ensure that private initiatives are unable to meet a clearly expressed need (i.e., there must be a “market failure”), and the benefits outweigh any disadvantages. The second paper, which focuses on longer-term issues, recommends that if a CBDC were to be issued, it should be aimed to stimulate innovation and not lead, even inadvertently, to the marginalization of the private sector.

The second paper concludes with a set of recommendations, including that the central bank should continue to issue banknotes, but in order to discourage their illicit use, gradually withdraw the high-denominations. Also, if retail CBDC is issued, it should allow offline transactions. Also there should be a threshold of anonymity for very small-value transactions to facilitate its substitution for cash without facilitating illicit transactions. Above this threshold, allow transactions under pseudonyms, with the possibility for the judicial authorities to request the lifting of pseudonymity, and limit the collection of personal information to what is necessary for reporting entities to fulfil their regulatory obligations. Christian recommends not limiting individual CBDC holdings, except for a transitional period, and remunerating at an interest rate linked by a fixed spread under the monetary policy rate. In addition, he recommends the issuance of wholesale CBDC on a distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform, and allow, but not force, payment service providers, including regulated issuers of retail stablecoins, to back their issuance with them. [Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here]

HSBC to launch Orion blockchain bond tokenization platform

HSBC is reportedly launching a distributed ledger technology (DLT) based bond tokenization platform. The European Investment Bank is currently exploring the possibility of issuing the market’s first-ever GBP tokenized bond, for registration and issuance under Luxembourg law, using HSBC Orion. [Read more at FFNews.com]

Kiffmeister’s Global 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 for any of you out there who work for a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution 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.

The CBDC Think Tank is a New York-based technology- and vendor-agnostic digital currency knowledge-sharing hub for staff of central banks, international financial institutions (IFIs) and non-government organizations (NGOs). It runs webinars, workshops, and masterclasses to disseminate knowledge and facilitate communication. It also engages in advisory work, focusing on delivering impact that best aligns with the needs of its clients and the forward progress of human civilization. The CBDC Think Tank welcomes requests from central bank officials for CBDC advisory services. [click here for more information].

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20221005)

October 5, 2022 ~ kiffmeister

The Book of [Blockchain, Crypto and Web3] Jargon

Latham & Watkins LLP has published a very helpful interactive glossary of acronyms, slang, and blockchain, crypto and Web3 industry terminology. [Download at Latham & Watkins LLP]

SWIFT innovation paves way for global use of CBDCs and tokenized assets

SWIFT, working with Capgemini, has shown that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and tokenized assets can move seamlessly on existing financial infrastructure. The findings, from two separate experiments, bridged transactions between different distributed ledger technology (DLT) platforms (JPMorgan Quorum and R3 Corda) and real-time gross settlement systems. However, it appears that it still uses intermediaries for cross border payments, and and intermediaries are a significant cause of friction in the payment system. Fourteen banks will be involved in further experiments to scale the system. [Read more at SWIFT]

Privacy in cross-border digital currency: A transatlantic approach

The Atlantic Council published an article illustrating how various technical design choices can affect the privacy and transparency of cross-border CBDCs. Many of the cross-border CBDC pilot studies to date have adopted the technical designs provided by enterprise DLT platforms. However, some of these designs make tradeoffs regarding privacy, efficiency, and/or security. Whether these tradeoffs are acceptable is a matter of policy, and requires coordination between different regulators and central banks. [Read more at the Atlantic Council]

Smart Contracts Could Improve Efficiency And Transparency In Financial Transactions

S&P Global has published a smart contract explainer. Using smart contracts in financial transactions can improve efficiency and reduce reliance on third parties like asset servicers and custodians, as well as make transaction resolutions faster–enhancing creditworthiness and the integrity of business dealings. However, smart contracts have had slow and limited adoption in the financial markets owing to key risks including technology issues (such as incorrect coding) and legal and regulatory ambiguities that make accountability difficult. [Read more at S&P Global]

Tickets available for CBDC Think Tank masterclass

The CBDC Think Tank, in partnership with the IMF and George Washington University, is hosting a full-day in-person CBDC Masterclass on October 12 in Washington DC for “official sector” staff and academics active in the CBDC / digital currency space only. The sessions are designed as instructional deep dives with full presentations and Q&A components. Tickets are $99. [Register here]

Also, the CBDC Think Tank, in partnership with Georgetown University and the DC FinTech Week, is hosting a FREE (also in-person) Digital Currency Lecture Series, a set of digital currency lightning talks delivered by subject matter experts, on October 14 in Washington DC. [Request an invite here]

Kiffmeister’s Global Central Bank Digital Currency Monthly Monitor

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20220918)

September 18, 2022 ~ kiffmeister

BIS Innovation Center at the NY Fed is looking into wholesale CBDC

Project Cedar, which is being run out of the BIS Innovation Center at the New York Fed, is looking into wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) from a research standpoint. It’s led by Per von Zelowitz, and what they’re trying to do, according to the Boston Fed’s Robert Bench, is “understand what are the requirements, or what are the things they need to think about, for the obligations of New York, which is the world’s leading capital market center?” Thanks to the Atlantic Council’s Josh Lipsky for bringing this to my attention. [Read more at the Atlanta Fed]

Bullet train: New tokens and platforms may transform cross-border payments

A few weeks ago the IMF’s Finance & Development magazine published an article by Tobias Adrian and Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli that pitched the idea of a multi wholesale CBDC platform to achieve greater cross border payment efficiencies. The IMF will soon publish two papers on these topics that will lay out an initial blueprint for such platforms. This concept is also being pursued by the BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre’s Project mCBDC Bridge, along with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Bank of Thailand, People’s Bank of China and Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates. [Read more at the IMF]

Central Bank Digital Currencies – The Quest for Public Digital Payment Infrastructures

This paper by Xavier Lavayssière summarizes the many considerations that go into the decision as to whether a central bank should issue CBDC and the many design dimensions. The decision-making process raises fundamental questions about the functions of central banks, the roles of the public and private sectors, technological design and international monetary competition that will be defining for the payment industry, economic development and sovereignty. [Download at Blockchain@X]

The Demand for Programmable Payments

This paper Charles Kahn and Maarten van Oordt studies the desirability of programmable payments where transfers are automatically executed conditional upon preset objective criteria. They do so in a framework that captures a wide range of economic relationships between two parties, in an environment without legal recourse. They find that optimal payment arrangements for long-term economic relationships consist predominantly of simple direct payments. Programmable payments will be desirable, and may in fact be the only viable payment arrangement, in situations where economic relationships are of a short duration. [Read more at SSRN]

Tickets available for CBDC Think Tank masterclass

Kiffmeister’s Global Central Bank Digital Currency Monthly Monitor

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (02/27/2022)*

February 27, 2022 ~ kiffmeister

What’s the marketing strategy for the Fed’s CBDC?

JP Koning wonders whether the U.S. Fed has a central bank digital currency (CBDC) marketing pitch beyond that it is safer than other forms of money (“free from credit risk and liquidity risk”). He argues that “safe” is something that Americans already have with commercial bank money thanks to deposit insurance. And because the Fed is going with an “intermediated” model, users will still have to deal with (and probably pay fees to) the same old banks and other payment service providers. [Read more]

Central bank digital currencies risk becoming a gigantic flop

Peter Bofinger and Thomas Haas made a similar argument a year ago with respect to advanced economy countries more generally – i.e., where a large share of the population have access to government-insured bank accounts. However, they concede that a supranational CBDC with multi-currency operability and an openness to payment objects that are not system-specific, may be a worthwhile response to monopolistic or oligopolistic global retail payment networks such as PayPal. [Read more]

BOJ on track for digital currency roll-out

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) is reportedly still on track for the roll-out of its JAM-DEX central bank digital currency (CBDC) during the first quarter of 2022. The remaining steps include the passage of amendments to the Bank of Jamaica Act to make CBDC legal tender and the BOJ the sole issuer, and increasing the number of deposit-taking institutions onboarding clients. Also, launch awaits an independent third-party quality assurance assessment of the system, the results of which will be made public. [Read more]

New European Commission Data Act aims for more control over smart contracts

The European Commission has released its proposal for the union’s new Data Act. Among other things, it would mandate that applications using smart contracts include “internal functions which can reset or instruct the contract to stop or interrupt the operation to avoid future (accidental) executions.” Fears are being expressed that such “kill switches” could threaten the promise of immutability because, with the ability of a single source to make a change, the contract is no longer autonomous. [Read more]

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (10/08/2021)

October 8, 2021 ~ kiffmeister

Anyone Seen Tether’s Billions?

A Bloomberg article made numerous claims against Tether, including that its chief financial officer Giancarlo Devasini has used the company’s reserves to make investments, that seem to contradict Tether’s public position that the holdings were fully backed at all times. In addition, the article alleges that Tether has invested in Chinese firms and issued crypto-backed loans “worth billions of dollars.” Furthermore, Wall Street traders were canvased to see if any had ever seen any trades made by the company, which supposedly holds $30 billion in commercial paper short-term loans — suggesting the fact that none had seen any should raise eyebrows. Additionally, only one bank was located — in the Bahamas — that was working with the firm. Tether called the article “another tired attempt to undermine” the company, pointing to its recent quarterly report on its holdings to demonstrate that it is 100% backed, although not offering any detail on its asset holdings that would concretely refute the Bloomberg article’s contentions. [Read more]

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 (09/17/2021)

September 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.