What's the future of crypto?

The financial revolution once promised by cryptocurrencies has been knocked off course by regulators and allegations of fraud. So what does the future hold for crypto?

Could digital currencies put banks out of business?

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have been billed as a major disruptor to finance. But digital currencies issued by governments might be even more radical—they may even threaten the future of traditional banking.

How Tap-to-Pay Works - The Tech Behind

From Apple iPhones to New York City subway turnstiles, tap-to-pay use in everyday American life is growing, thanks in part to its security and ease of use. But tap-to-pay and its small near field communication antennas are more complicated than they look. 

WSJ takes you inside one of Square’s card readers to break down the tech that works in seconds to power contactless payments.

How Covid Changed the Payments Industry

Covid-19 caused clear shifts in payments preferences, changes that continue to reverberate through both banking and the world of nonbank payments providers. The most recent Federal Reserve Payments Study, delving deeply into data from 2019 and 2020, shows clear evidence that the pandemic jump-started migration from traditional forms of payments to a myriad of remote and innovative forms of payments.

Want to find out more? Click HERE.

What El Salvador's Bitcoin Experiment Looks Like

El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as its national currency, allowing people to use a digital wallet to pay for everyday goods. Here’s what the impoverished nation’s risky experiment looks like.

 

Could digital currencies put banks out of business? - The Economist

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have been billed as a major disruptor to finance. But digital currencies issued by governments might be even more radical—they may even threaten the future of traditional banking

 

Who is going to win the digital money competition?

In a posting in Finextra, Janne Jutila, Managing Director at Internos Partners writes;

‘The two main drivers of competition in digital money are geopolitical and technological – and they are intertwined. China is fast becoming the largest economy in the world and is already almost cashless as commerce is done on mobile platforms like Alipay and WeChat pay. China aims to further boost economic growth, whilst increasing state control, as it imminently plans to scale the use of digital yuan. As digital yuan transactions can be monitored and controlled by Chinese government, it could well allow more freedom in its use outside the country. How much boost the digital yuan will give remains to be seen but enough to add urgency on ECB and FED to progress on their competing digital currency projects.’

Read the full article on Finextra HERE.

Libra Cryptocurrency could be in danger, as Mastercard, Visa and Ebay pull out

Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra took a major hit last Friday, when Mastercard, Visa and Ebay left the Libra Association, who supervises the project. Stripe and Argentina-based Mercado Pago have also left the initiative.

On Monday, the companies who are part of the Libra Association will formalize their participation in the initiative. Companies such as Visa and Mastercard may have second thoughts, as global regulators have raised concerns about the project.

Earlier this month, PayPal also left the Libra association. The departures mean that Libra no longer has the support of any major digital payment company.

Despite these setbacks, Dante Disparte, the head of communications at the Libra Association, has said that "We are focused on moving forward and continuing to build a strong association of some of the world's leading enterprises, social impact organizations and other stakeholders" and that membership of the association may grow and change over time.

Last Wednesday, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said that Libra should not be developed in the European Union and said, "it should not be the role of a private company to try and get a sovereign currency like a sovereign state."

Valdis Dombrovskis, the Executive Vice President-Designate of the European Commission, also said this week that Libra needs to be tightly regulated to preserve monetary stability and to prevent money-laundering operations.

In the U.S., Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said earlier this year the cryptocurrency raises "many serious concerns regarding privacy, money laundering, and consumer protection." Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has also said that the currency could be used to finance terrorist operations, and that it represents a "national security issue."

Libra was unveiled by Facebook in June, and was touted as a digital currency that can be managed from one's phone. The cryptocurrency is particularly directed at the 1.7 billion people on the planet without access to a traditional bank account.

Why Are Banks Testing Bitcoin's Blockchain? And Why Isn’t Bitcoin Involved?

From American Banker –

“Ask a U.S. banker about the prospects for Bitcoin, a digital currency with no trusted central authority or mechanism to reverse transactions, and you're likely to get a lukewarm answer.

But financial institutions are increasingly taking an interest in Bitcoin's recordkeeping system, known as the blockchain, a so-called distributed ledger that can be used to track much more than stateless electronic tokens.”

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Treasury Report: UK's Bitcoin Startups React

From Coin Desk –

“This week's news that the UK government will seek to regulate digital currencies made waves in the local startup community.

The UK Treasury report, revealed on Wednesday as part of chancellor George Osborne's annual budget, outlined plans to curb criminal activity via AML (anti-money laundering) regulation and allow digital currency companies to opt-in to standardised consumer protections following May's election. The government also proposed injecting £10m into research on digital currencies as part of its larger pledge to innovation in FinTech.

While many of the 120 submissions that informed the Treasury's plans came from payment bodies, banks, academics, consultancies and fellow government agencies, bitcoin companies also weighed in on the future of digital currency regulation in the UK.’

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Bitcoin Still Confuses Bankers

From Bloomberg View –

“Bitcoin, the poster child for digital currencies, is proving something of a headache for central banks. Should they ban it, regulate it, embrace it, undermine it or just ignore it? Their best bet would be to let Darwinism take its course, and resist the regulatory impulse to interfere with either Bitcoin's survival or demise. And, if it lives, they should step aside and celebrate innovation rather than try to block its progress.

Bitcoin has always posed a challenge to central bankers' exclusive power to mint money, but it's never been clear how the official guardians of monetary stability would respond to it. Reports published in recent weeks by the European Central Bank and the Bank of England suggest they're scrambling to keep all of their options open. Schizophrenia is setting in.”

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