America’s lawmakers and Federal Reserve officials “are so concerned about Facebook’s plans to launch a new digital currency,” reports Politico’s financial services reporter, “that they’re contemplating a novel response — having the central bank create a competitor.”
Momentum is building for an idea that was once considered outlandish — a U.S. government-run virtual currency that would replace physical cash, a dramatic move…
Tag: cryptocurrencies
G7 Taskforce Warns Global Crytocurrencies Like Libra Pose Risks, May Not Be Approved
“Stablecoin” cryptocurrencies like Libra pose a risk to the global financial system, warns a new report by the G7 group of nations. An anonymous reader quotes the BBC: The G7 taskforce that produced the report includes senior officials from central banks, the International Monetary Fund and the Financial Stability Board, which coordinates rules for the G20 economies. It says backers of…
Monetary Value Estimates of the Air Pollution and Human Health Impacts of Cryptocurrency Mining
Andrew L.Goodkind, Benjamin A. Jones, and Robert P. Berrens, writing in a paper: Cryptocurrency mining uses significant amounts of energy as part of the proof-of-work time-stamping scheme to add new blocks to the chain. Expanding upon previously calculated energy use patterns for mining four prominent cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Monero), we estimate the per coin economic damages of air pollution…
The World’s Most-Used Cryptocurrency Isn’t Bitcoin
What’s the world’s most widely used cryptocurrency? If you think it’s Bitcoin, which accounts for about 70% of all the digital-asset world’s market value, you’re probably wrong. From a report: While concrete figures on trading volumes are hard to come by in this often murky corner of finance, data from CoinMarketCap.com show that the token with the highest daily and monthly…
NYSE Owner Launches Long-Awaited Bitcoin Futures
The owner of the New York Stock Exchange launched its long-delayed market for bitcoin futures Sunday, a high-profile bet that consumers, businesses and Wall Street will embrace cryptocurrencies. From a report: Trading in the new bitcoin futures began just after 8 p.m. EDT [Editor’s note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source], with the first trade at $10,115.00, in line with…
Crypto-mining Malware Saw New Life Over the Summer as Monero Value Tripled
Malware that mines cryptocurrency made a comeback over the summer, with an increased number of campaigns being discovered and documented by cyber-security firms. From a report: The primary reason for this sudden resurgence is the general revival of the cryptocurrency market, which saw trading prices recover after a spectacular crash in late 2018. Monero, the cryptocurrency of choice of most crypto-mining…
Terrorists Turn To Bitcoin For Funding, and They’re Learning Fast
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Hamas, the militant Palestinian group, has been designated a terrorist organization by Western governments and some others and has been locked out of the traditional financial system. But this year its military wing has developed an increasingly sophisticated campaign to raise money using Bitcoin. In the latest version of the…
Wall Street Finds Blockchain Hard To Tame After Early Euphoria
Two years ago Nasdaq and Citigroup announced a new blockchain system they said would make payments of private securities transactions more efficient. Nasdaq Chief Executive Adena Friedman called it “a milestone in the global financial sector.” But the companies did not move forward with the project, Reuters reported Tuesday, because while it worked in testing, the cost to fully adopt it…
Facebook’s Libra Cryptocurrency Could Be Misused By Terrorists, Says Treasury Chief Mnuchin
In a press conference Monday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Facebook’s proposed digital currency, Libra, “could be misused by money launderers and terrorist financiers” and that it was a “national security issue.” CNBC reports: “Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have been exploited to support billions of dollars of illicit activity like cyber crime, tax evasion, extortion, ransomware, illicit drugs and human trafficking,”…
US Lawmakers Consider Ban On Big Tech Companies Launching Cryptocurrencies
PolygamousRanchKid quotes Reuters: A proposal to prevent big technology companies from functioning as financial institutions or issuing digital currencies has been circulated for discussion by the Democratic majority that leads the House Financial Services Committee, according to a copy of the draft legislation seen by Reuters. In a sign of widening scrutiny after Facebook Inc’s (FB.O) proposed Libra digital coin aroused…