China is competing for more than just medals at the Winter Olympics in Beijing this month. It’s also quietly trying to define the future of money. Although attendees can pay vendors for food and souvenirs with a Visa or cash, they also have the option of holding up a phone, scanning a barcode, and paying with the “e-CNY,” or electronic yuan, one of the only so-called central bank digital currencies offered by a major economy.
Inside the Main Media Centre before the start of the games, Cai Qianyi, a 42-year-old media professional, used his Android phone to purchase roast chicken and broccoli. “This is very convenient,” Cai says. “Compared to carrying cash, this way I avoid touching currency notes.”
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-15/china-is-showing-off-its-central-bank-digital-yuan-currency-at-beijing-olympics
A bill introduced in Arizona would make bitcoin legal tender in the state in the unlikely event that the legislation passes and the law goes into effect.
The bill must pass the Arizona state senate and house before Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, could sign it into law.
Last September, El Salvador made bitcoin legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar and remains the only country in the world that has made the cryptocurrency an official currency.
Read more: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/01/28/arizona-senator-introduces-bill-to-make-bitcoin-legal-tender/
“A CBDC could fundamentally change the structure of the U.S. financial system, altering the roles and responsibilities of the private sector and the central bank,” the report says.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has been largely noncommittal in his public comments on the CBDC. The concept’s biggest advocate is Fed Governor Lael Brainard, who has been nominated to be vice chair of the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee.
Several other Fed officials have voiced skepticism over the digital dollar, saying the benefits are not obvious.
One primary difference between the Fed’s dollar and other digital transactions is that current digital money is a liability of commercial banks, whereas the CBDC would be a Fed liability. Among other things, that would mean the Fed wouldn’t pay interest on money stored with it, though because it is riskless some depositors may prefer to keep their money with the central bank.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/20/fed-releases-long-awaited-study-on-a-digital-dollar-but-doesnt-take-a-position-yet-on-creating-one.html
"Once authenticated, the NFT will be displayed as a soft hexagon across all surfaces where your avatar is visible. When people tap on it, they can learn more about the art, its collection, provenance and more," said Twitter in release describing the new feature, which makes use of leading NFT marketplace OpenSea's API.
Twitter announced on Thursday that certain users will be able to import NFTs from their crypto wallets and post them as their profile pictures on the popular social media service.
For now, the service is only available to those who sign up for the "Labs" feature via the company's Twitter Blue subscription service. Twitter is also limiting the release to iOS users but says Android and web users will be able to see when a user changes their profile pics to an NFT.
Read more: https://decrypt.co/90847/twitter-nft-profile-picture-verification
Video courtesy: Twitter Blue
Opensea, one of the biggest NFT marketplaces globally, recently announced it is acquiring Dharma Labs. The price is believed to be between $110 million and $130 million. As a result of the new agreement between the two companies, Nadav Hollander, a co-founder at Dharma Labs, will become the new chief technology officer (CTO) at Opensea.
In a blog post that explains some of the leading NFT marketplace’s reasons for buying Dharma Labs, Opensea CEO Devin Finzer said:
"Our teams share a vision that NFTs will be the cultural focal point of crypto’s adoption for years to come — and that vision can only be realized if using NFTs becomes easy & delightful for the average person."
Meanwhile, the report notes that some of the NFT marketplace’s users have become critical of what they view as Opensea’s overly centralized structure. Others have suggested that early users of the platform may not have benefited enough from the surge in Opensea’s valuation.
Read more: https://news.bitcoin.com/opensea-acquires-dharma-labs-co-founder-is-named-new-cto/
Company stocks and real estate will be among the many things that get turned into non-fungible tokens in the future, according to venture capitalist Bill Tai.
The tech investor told CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal on Wednesday that “it’s going to happen” and it’s “not even a question.”
Instead, it is simply a matter of when it will happen at scale, Tai said at the Crypto Finance Conference in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Like many other NFT advocates, Tai is also interested in cryptocurrencies. He described the latest crypto collapse that saw bitcoin’s value briefly fall to less than $40,000 on Monday as “yet another wobble” but he’s optimistic it will bounce back.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/14/stocks-and-property-will-be-turned-into-nfts-vc-says.html
“It’s either going to fall apart completely, or we’re going to use this as an opportunity to right the ship and come up with a better way to live our lives.”
Controversial comedian and commentator Joe Rogan said that he “has a lot of hope” for cryptocurrencies in a recent podcast interview.
In the 1,760th Saturday episode of his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan discussed the future of crypto with fellow podcaster Adam Curry. Rogan’s podcast has an estimated 11 million listeners per episode despite Spotify’s attempts to censor some of the more offensive episodes.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/world-s-biggest-podcaster-joe-rogan-has-a-lot-of-hope-for-bitcoin
"Defendants touted the prospects of the company and the ability for investors to make significant returns due to the favorable 'tokenomics' of the EMAX Tokens," Huegerich argued in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California. "In truth, defendants marketed the EMAX Tokens to investors so that they could sell their portion of the float for a profit."
If you think Ethereum is struggling, you should see the prices for Ethereum Max (EMAX), the Ethereum-based token that generated publicity last summer through endorsements from celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, boxer Floyd Mayweather, and former NBA star Paul Pierce.
Now, all three celebrities are being sued by an aggrieved investor, who alleges they colluded with EMAX co-founders Steve Gentile and Giovanni Perone to pump the price of the token and then dump them, leaving average investors holding the (mostly worthless) bag.
https://decrypt.co/90110/kim-kardashian-floyd-mayweather-paul-pierce-sued-ethereum-max-promotion
Associated Press to Launch NFT Marketplace on Polygon to Support Journalism
“For 175 years, AP’s photographers have recorded the world’s biggest stories through gripping and poignant images that continue to resonate today,” said Dwayne Desaulniers, AP’s director of blockchain and data licensing, in a release. “With Xooa’s technology, we are proud to offer these tokenized pieces to a fast-growing global audience of photography NFT collectors.”
Each NFT will feature detailed metadata—or stored information—about the shot in question. According to a release, the metadata will feature information about the date, time, and location of each photo, along with the equipment and camera settings used to capture the image.
This isn’t the AP’s first step into the wider blockchain market. In October, the AP partnered with blockchain oracle maker Chainlink Labs to operate a Chainlink node, and use the network to provide cryptographically-signed data that cannot be tampered with. The AP planned to use Chainlink for data such as sports scores, election results, and company financial reports.
https://decrypt.co/90118/associated-press-nft-marketplace-polygon-photo-journalism
"Sometimes the best time to buy is when things go down, so when they go back up, you made a good profit,” said Adams. “We need to use the technology of blockchain, Bitcoin, of all other forms of technology. I want New York City to be the center of that technology.”
Newly sworn-in New York City Mayor Eric Adams is already using his influence to speak publicly about buying the recent Bitcoin dip.
In a Thursday interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, Adams said he had not yet received his first paycheck as the mayor of New York City, but reiterated his aim to make the city a Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto hub.
As part of his efforts to promote crypto and blockchain technology — or perhaps inspired by a friendly feud with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez — Adams announced following the election that he planned to take his first three paychecks in BTC.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/nyc-mayor-getting-paid-in-bitcoin-suggests-buying-the-dip?utm_content=buffer61db1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Praises Tezos and Zcash
"I think there’s real fun and interesting stuff happening in Zcash lands. There’s real interesting stuff happening in Tezos"
Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Vuterin doesn’t think that anything outside the Ethereum ecosystem is “boring and illegitimate,” claiming that he takes interest in Zcash and Tezos.
Buterin is convinced that there’s honorable communities in crypto whose interests extend beyond making a quick buck.
He also encouraged people who have become disillusioned with Ethereum to “move their bags to something else.”
https://u.today/ethereum-co-founder-vitalik-buterin-praises-tezos-and-zcash
