I’ve updated my tabulation of retail central bank digital currency (#CBDC) explorers. Mostly just updated links. There are still 91 central banks that have recently issued, piloted, experimented with and/or researched retail CBDC. (Note that I don’t pump up my count by separately count national central banks that are members of currency unions.) [Check out the tabulation here]
US agencies issue joint statement on crypto-asset risks to banking organizations
US federal bank regulatory agencies issued a statement highlighting key risks for banking organizations associated with crypto-assets and the crypto-asset sector and describing the agencies’ approaches to supervision in this area. Banking organizations are neither prohibited nor discouraged from providing banking services to customers of any specific class or type, as permitted by law or regulation. However, the agencies believe that issuing or holding as principal crypto-assets that are issued, stored, or transferred on an open, public, and/or decentralized network, or similar system is highly likely to be inconsistent with safe and sound banking practices. Further, the agencies have significant safety and soundness concerns with business models that are concentrated in crypto-asset-related activities or have concentrated exposures to the crypto-asset sector.[Read more at the Federal Reserve Board]
Coinbase reaches $100 million settlement with New York regulator over compliance programs
The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) reached a $100 million settlement with Coinbase over issues regarding the company’s compliance programs. Coinbase will be required to pay $50 million as a penalty and invest an additional $50 million to bolster its abilities to comply with financial regulations. The department said it found “significant failures” in Coinbase’s compliance program that violated virtual currency regulations regarding, know-your-customer (KYC) due diligence, transaction monitoring, and suspicious activity reporting. [Read more at the NYDFS]
Breaking RSA with a Quantum Computer
A group of Chinese researchers have published a paper claiming that they can—although they have not yet done so—break 2048-bit RSA. Bruce Schneier says this is something to take seriously – it might not be correct, but it’s not obviously wrong. One of the issues with the algorithm is that it relies on a recent factoring paper by Peter Schnorr. It’s a controversial paper; and despite the “this destroys the RSA cryptosystem” claim in the abstract, it does nothing of the sort. Schnorr’s algorithm works well with smaller moduli—around the same order as ones the Chinese group has tested—but falls apart at larger sizes. At this point, nobody understands why. If that’s true, the techniques in this Chinese paper won’t scale either. [Read more at Schneier Security]
2nd Edition of DC³ Conference – From Cryptocurrencies to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will hold (virtually) the second edition of its DC3 Conference – From Cryptocurrencies to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) from January 24 to 27 2023. On January 27 I will be moderating two panels on offline central bank digital currency (CBDC). Also, on January 24, Jacques Francouer and I will be providing an update to our ITU Digital Currency Global Initiative digital currency ontology work. [For more event detail go to the ITU DC3 conference site]
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.
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