Seeds of Wisdom RV and Economic Updates Thursday Morning 9-5-24

September 5, 2024 DINARRECAPS8

Good Morning Dinar Recaps,

ZURICH CANTONAL BANK OFFERS CRYPTO TRADING SERVICES

▪️Zurich Cantonal Bank starts offering cryptocurrency services today.

▪️ZKB customers can trade Bitcoin and Ethereum via mobile banking.

▪️Partnership with Crypto Finance ensures regulated and competent crypto services.

Bitcoin (BTC) is heading towards new lows as expected and retested $55,000 today. However, there is also good news.

The increasing institutional interest in cryptocurrencies has reached a point where banks cannot remain indifferent. In Turkey, Garanti BBVA Bank took the first step, and now one of Switzerland’s largest banks has taken action for two major cryptocurrencies.

Zurich Cantonal Bank and Crypto

For individual customers and third-party banks, Zurich Cantonal Bank has started offering cryptocurrency services as of today.

Partnering with a company named Crypto Finance for this job, the bank will provide these services on a legal basis. Crypto Finance is managed by Deutsche Börse, which holds FINMA and Germany’s BaFIN licenses.

ZKB, one of the country’s four major banks, is also the largest cantonal bank in the Zurich region. Moreover, it is a highly reputable institution with a AAA rating from Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P. In fact, in 2023, rating agencies announced it as the second safest bank in the world.

Buying Cryptocurrency from the Bank

As of today, ZKB customers can buy and sell Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) directly through the mobile banking application. For cautious investors who see centralized cryptocurrency exchanges as less secure, especially after bad examples like FTX, such alternatives will also increase liquidity inflow into the markets..

The bank’s Head of Digital Asset Solutions, Peter Hubli, said:

“With Crypto Finance by our side, we have a long-term industry-experienced, regulated, and competent partner who is familiar with the aspects of the crypto business.”

Although ZKB has taken a big step, it is not the first bank to move in this direction. In 2021, BBVA Switzerland was the first to make a name for itself. Another of the country’s four major banks, PostFinance, offered cryptocurrency services in early 2024 in partnership with Sygnum.

The increasing interest of banks and the entry of such reputable institutions into the crypto business is motivating for all investors.

@ Newshounds News™

Source: CoinTurk News

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IMF EXPLORES HOW CBDCS CAN ADDRESS PRIVACY

Arguably, the two biggest challenges for retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are whether the public sees them as useful and concerns about privacy.

Despite coverage to the contrary, central banks design most current CBDCs with good intentions. However, with many countries shifting towards more divisive politics, some worry that CBDCs designs could be tweaked.

These concerns relate to a central bank or regulator dictating who can use the CBDC or restricting how the money can be spent. Alternatively, there are big brother snooping concerns. A recent paper by staff at the International Monetary Fund offers a thoughtful approach to the topic.

At a high level the report shows a deep appreciation of the issues. But it also delivers a practical how-to framework.

More than once they cite a 20-year-old paper that argues privacy is inherent to the nature of money. That ‘Money is Privacy’ report was in response to the growth of ecommerce, including the use of personal data to charge higher prices to some people.

The ‘Money is Privacy’ paper even suggested some might want to use an intermediary in order to anonymize payments in the absence of anonymous money. This was before the invention of Bitcoin.

The IMF authors cite an Edelman Trust Institute study that found respondents trust businesses (63%) more than government institutions (51%). However, the research spanned 28 countries, with people putting greater trust in the government in four jurisdictions.

Apart from the collection of data, privacy risks come from external events, such as data leakages, data abuses, cyberattacks, and cross-border payments data flows.

The proposed framework adopts a three step approach:

▪️Define data use cases
▪️Identify risks to privacy
▪️Implement privacy by design and PETs (privacy enhancing technologies).

Data use cases

Personal data isn’t particularly useful for central banks. However, aggregated transaction data can be used for monetary statistics and to optimize monetary policies.

The report notes that the European Central Bank and the Bank of England have vowed not to access or use personal data for CBDC. Although it said that “other central banks (for example, the Reserve Bank of India) have emphasized the economic value of CBDC data.”

On that point, one of the purposes for collecting private information may be to provide credit scores for those that lack traditional credit histories.

The paper explores how each participant – central banks, payment service providers, merchants and consumers – might desire to access either aggregated data or private information. For consumers, the desire is to control that access.

One question is whether central banks can learn from the BigTech experience, particularly from China’s Alibaba and the associated payments app Alipay . It notes that data collection can help to expand access to credit. At the same time, it says BigTech profit incentives result in the erosion of consumer privacy.

The question is whether there is a similar risk for CBDCs with payment service providers (PSPs). “A nonbank that manages payment data is a central node in the economy that would have incentives to launch additional nonbank services or platforms tied to its central role.”

On the other hand, banks don’t combine data and there are many of them, so with banks involved in CBDC, it’s more likely to resemble the traditional payment system.

If non-bank PSPs are involved in distributing a CBDC, it could resemble the BigTech scenario if one of them is dominant. Perhaps that might include a wallet app.

For those interested in the topic, the IMF’s paper is well worth a read.

Meanwhile, in June the ECB published a blog post about making the digital euro private and we analyzed the digital euro progress on that front.

@ Newshounds News™

Source: LedgerInsights

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SEC DELAYS DECISION ON ECO-FRIENDLY BITCOIN ETF AGAIN

▪️The SEC delayed its decision on an eco-friendly Bitcoin ETF again.

▪️This increased uncertainty among investors and caused market fluctuations.

▪️Experts believe such projects could help cryptocurrencies gain wider acceptance.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has once again delayed its decision on an eco-friendly Bitcoin ETF (Exchange Traded Fund). This situation has increased uncertainty among investors and caused fluctuations in the cryptocurrency market.

Reason for SEC’s Delay

The SEC stated that it needs more information regarding the potential impacts of the proposed ETF as the reason for the delay. The commission aims to conduct a more careful evaluation, especially considering environmental impacts.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has once again delayed its decision on an eco-friendly Bitcoin ETF (Exchange Traded Fund). This situation has increased uncertainty among investors and caused fluctuations in the cryptocurrency market.

Reason for SEC’s Delay

The proposed ETF aims to reduce Bitcoin’s energy consumption and achieve a more sustainable structure. The ETF’s goal is to support Bitcoin mining using renewable energy sources and minimize its environmental footprint.

Investors’ Reaction

Investors find the SEC’s decision uncertain and consider it a risk for the market. Particularly, investors planning to invest in eco-friendly projects are negatively affected by this delay.

The SEC is known to have postponed similar decisions before. However, in this period of increased environmental awareness, interest in eco-friendly projects has grown. Therefore, investors and markets are eagerly awaiting the SEC’s final decision.

SEC officials said, “We need to examine the environmental impacts of the proposed ETF in more detail.”

On the other hand, the growing interest in the eco-friendly Bitcoin ETF is seen as a positive sign for the future of sustainable projects in the cryptocurrency market. Experts suggest that such projects could help cryptocurrencies gain wider acceptance.

@ Newshounds News™

Source: Cooin-Turk

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CARDANO NEWS: HOSKINSON CLARIFIES HIS ROLE AFTER CHANG HARD FORK IMPLEMENTATION

Cardano has successfully implemented the Chang hard fork, marking the commencement of the Conway era, a significant step in the blockchain’s journey toward full decentralization.

This upgrade that occurred at block 10,764,778 on Sunday incorporated the CIP-1694 governance model, which now allows ADA holders to vote directly on the network’s decisions.

The Cardano Foundation praised the Chang hard fork as a significant event, underlining its significance for the blockchain, ecosystem, and community. “This upgrade realizes the vision of a fully autonomous and decentralized network,” the Foundation said in a blog post on September 2.

Community Debates Hoskinson’s Future Role in Cardano Development’

However, this upgrade has also created some controversy among the Cardano community regarding the future of Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano. Chris-O, a known community member, proposed keeping Hoskinson and his company, Input Output Global (IOG), to fast-track the development of core Cardano functionalities. This proposal has met with both support and opposition views from the public.

SynthLuvr, the founder of Mynth Network, has a different view, stating that with Hoskinson leaving, Cardano might be better off. According to SynthLuvr, the development of Cardano may benefit from relinquishing this role and enabling the community to be at the forefront, thereby establishing Cardano as the opposite of Ethereum in terms of having a clear leader.

Hoskinson responded to the ongoing debate with a tweet, questioning the perception of his role at IOG. “I’m not involved technically? What the hell do people think that I do at IOG?” he tweeted.

The Cardano ecosystem will now operate under three key bodies: the constitutional committee, delegate representatives, and stake pool operators.

The first phase of the hard fork introduced the constitutional committee, which governs the transition of governance.

The second phase of the new governance structures is expected to be launched within the next 90 days and will build on the achievements of the first phase.

Hoskinson Describes Cardano as Unstoppable “Governance Virus”

In another post, Hoskinson shared his experience of working with Cardano for the past ten years and the stress of being a public representative of the blockchain industry. He pointed out that the process has been a bumpy ride, but at the same time, there were some major successes.

“Working on Cardano this past decade has been a whirlwind of emotions, challenges, and tremendous obstacles to overcome,” Hoskinson wrote. He emphasized that Cardano’s evolution has turned it into something “alive” and unstoppable.

According to Hoskinson, it is a “governance virus that is alive, replicative, and autonomic,” stating that there is no way to stop its expansion or turn it off. Cardano has not been without its controversies in the past, with critics referring to it as a ‘dead chain.’

In July, a YouTuber, Ben Armstrong, who is popularly known as BitBoy Crypto, labeled ADA as irrelevant to institutional investors. Following the Chang hard fork, ADA was trading at $0.32, showing some resilience despite a slight decline of 2.04% over the past 24 hours.

@ Newshounds News™

Source: Crypto News Flash

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