This Month In Bitcoin And Central Banks

What will it look like when central banks are on the blockchain? ACI is hard at work modeling an answer to this question. The international payments firm already enables more than 5,000 credit unions, processors and banks to transact $14tn daily through its suite of software-as-a-service tools, and now it's seeking to uncover how blockchain could play a role in its delivery. Constructed on a five-node network that runs on servers in Omaha, Nebraska, and Norcross, Georgia, ACI has built a blockchain proof-of-concept specifically designed to simulate how a central bank and four financial....

Bitcoin and Blockchain are technologies which have the potential to dramatically change the world. If Blockchain technology is deployed rapidly and effectively, we can bank the unbanked, automate contracts and even get Blockchains to work with the Internet of Things (IOT) to create a Blockchain of Things. Yet the primary use of Blockchains remains as a medium to validate cryptocurrency transactions. If that is the case, one must ask the question, how soon before central banks not only accept Blockchain but also start to have more acceptance of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? After all....

Bitfinex’s “bail-in” scheme after a major theft raised questions regarding its risk and fund management. What can we learn from the recent bail-in event? To answer, a look at the result of the bail-in, and how it differs from central bank bailouts is necessary. With central bank bailout schemes in place around the world, many who are new to the concept....

Researchers at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have examined the central bank laws of 174 IMF members to answer the question of whether a digital currency is really money. They found that of all the central banks studied, only about 23%, or 40 central banks, “are legally allowed to issue digital currencies.” IMF Explores if Digital Currency Is Money The IMF published a blog post on Thursday exploring whether digital money is really money in the legal sense. The post is authored by Catalina Margulis, a consulting counsel in the IMF Legal Department’s Financial and....

According to Christine Lagarde, the head of the European Central Bank, at least 80 central banks around the world are looking at CBDC adoption. 80 Central Banks To Adopt CBDC “We think that it’s a duty of us to actually have available digital currencies that would operate to the benefit of consumers,” Lagarde said at […]