Your Cryptocurrency Newsletter for 14 September, 2020

If you are interested in cryptocurrencies, this newsletter is for you. [Feedbinary Newsletter]  [Learn more about RevenueStripe...](   [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [img]( [FeedBinary Newsletter]( [Cryptocurrencies as an Alternative to Centralized Banking]( Central banks are some the oldest financial organizations in the world while Bitcoin has only been around for the last 11 years. Bitcoin might be replacing banks in a new golden age. To learn more on how central banks might become obsolete as Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general keep gaining popularity. Central Banks and Their Long History Despite the common belief that the U.S Federal Reserve is the first Central Bank funded in the U.S., the Bank of United States was the first officially established, being proposed by Alexander Hamilton in 1791. Its initial goal was to serve as a repository for federal funds and as the government’s fiscal agent at the time. However, many critics of the First Bank feared that its interference was constraining economic development. Its charter was renewed in 1811 and in 1816 a Second Band was formed, bringing renewed controversy. The U.S. Supreme Court supported it but there was the lingering concern that this action represented an unconstitutional use of federal power. Critics, working with agrarian opponents of the bank, succeeded in preventing the renewal of the charter in 1811, and the First Bank went out of operation. A year later, however, due to financing problems caused by the War of 1812, the U.S Central Bank was re-established, and in 1816, the Second Bank of the United States was instituted with similar functions to the first one. Andrew Jackson’s Interference with Banks President Andrew Jackson removed all federal funds from the bank in 1832, and once its charter expired in 1836, he ceased its operations as a national institution. It continued as a commercial bank under the laws of Pennsylvania and continued operating until it eventually collapses in 1841. Simultaneously to this time period, from 1834 to 1933, the price of gold was fixed at $20,67 per ounce in the United States, however, it took until 1879 for the U.S. to adopt the gold standard for its currency. Once banks were closed, financial turmoil resulted between 1836 and the founding of the Federal Reserve System established in 1913. It took until 1910 until a group of bankers met on Jekyll Island to create a resurgence of the U.S. Central Bank, which would now be known as the Federal Reserve. Jekyll Island’s Secreting Meeting Six bankers -Nelson Aldrich, A. Piatt Andrew, Henry Davison, Arthur Shelton, Frank Vanderlip, and Paul Warburg- secretly met at Jekyll Island to reform the nation’s banking system and created the foundation of what is still known today as the Federal Reserve System. They were supported by higher powers as the Fed Reserve Act was passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and then later signed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Not much later, the Federal Reserve began profoundly changing the nature of money. In just its first seven years of operation, wholesale prices in the U.S. rose more than 240%, and between 1914 and 1920, the currency in circulation had increased 242,7%. Wilson regrets his decision of passing this Act and reveals it before his death, stating “I am a most unhappy man– unwittingly I have ruined my country”. The Great Depression and Gold Hoarding The Great Depression is the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, affecting the U.S. from 1929 to 1939. It began as a result of the Wall Street stock market crash of October 1929, causing panic and wiped out millions of investors. In 1933, seeking to stabilize the situation, President Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill ending the Gold Standard, which was the monetary system that backed the U.S. currency by gold. Congress enacted a joint resolution nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold, but bank failures during the Great Depression frightened the public and resulting in hoarding gold. In addition to this decision, Roosevelt ordered all gold coins and gold certificates in denominations of more than $100 to be confiscated and turned in for U.S. dollars, requiring the population to deliver all gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates at the set price of $20.67 per ounce. Gold: Is it Good or Bad? Roosevelt’s decision resulted in positive. In 1934, the government price of gold has increased to $35 per ounce, effectively increasing the gold on the Federal Reserve’s balance sheets by 69%. This increase was what allowed the Federal Reserve to inflate the money supply further. This continued until 1971, when President Richard Nixon abandoned the conversion of dollars to gold at a fixed value, completely rejecting the gold standard. During Nixon’s government, owning gold was illegal. Prior to the removal of the gold cover, each Federal Reserve Bank had been required to hold a gold certificate reserve of not less than 25 percent against its Federal Reserve note liability. It took until 1974 for President Gerald Ford to sign legislation that permitted Americans to once again own gold and remove any of these restrictions. Central Banks and the Future As seen, central banks have both progressed and damaged the U.S. economy. For this reason, it is still unsure how central banks will act in the future and whether or not they will provide the U.S. and other leading economies with positive aspects. This becomes even more uncertain with the growth of cryptocurrencies since some people prefer the new modern option over the old system, and leave physical behind. Modern solutions allow individuals to become their own banks and excludes this middle man. [Read Full News]( The post [Cryptocurrencies as an Alternative to Centralized Banking]( first appeared on [Feed Binary](. [Read Full Story]( ------------------ [Why Crypto Payments May Be Mainstream Sooner Than You Think]( Ever since Bitcoin’s peaked at $20,000 in 2017, the global cryptocurrency market began cooling off gradually with investors around the world wondering if the digital asset and its likes also known as altcoins – are still worth investing. This begs the million-dollar question – where is crypto adoption at now? Different blockchain protocols’ underlying crypto-assets provide different utility, for example, Ethereum’s ETH can be used to pay for usage of smart contracts hosted on the network. However, all cryptocurrencies – as their name suggests – can be used as a form of value transfer or payments which is the reason the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was invented for. Cryptocurrency payments are executed over a decentralized network which means the sender can freely send funds to anyone no matter where they are at without the need for a central authority – retaining full control of their assets without compromise to their privacy. So why are cryptocurrencies not already used by the masses? Payment industry veterans suggest there are not enough crypto acceptance points to allow mainstream adoption of crypto payments due to three key reasons: - Businesses often already have multiple systems to accept a variety of payments, such as credit cards and mobile wallets, and are not willing to take on another payment system to accept only crypto. - Businesses are not willing to receive cryptocurrencies as settlement due to their volatile prices. - Crypto payments have longer transaction time due to the need for confirmations over blockchain networks. This may soon change as an up-and-rising blockchain decentralized finance (DeFi) project, Alchemy Pay, tackles these three critical barriers head-on. Alchemy Pay is a blockchain payments project that was founded in Singapore by a group of like-minded payment industry veterans hailing from payment and technology giants such as PayPal, Mastercard, UnionPay and ZhongAn Technology in a mission to solve the industry’s pain-points and drive crypto adoption. After more than two years of intensive market research and product development, Alchemy Pay launched the world’s first hybrid fiat and crypto payment solutions which is an all-in-one system that can be deployed on all mainstream platforms such as point-of-sale systems, payment terminals, mobile devices, in-app and online payment gateways. The multifunctional system is able to help businesses accept fiat, such as credit cards and mobile wallets, and a broad variety of cryptocurrencies with expedited transaction speeds by leveraging on-chain analysis to enable zero block confirmations and the integration of other second-layer scaling solutions such as lightning network. During settlement, merchants have the option to receive their payout in their local fiat currency to completely avoid any price volatility risks. The game-changing solution, which effectively tackled the three aforementioned barriers, were met with enthusiastic responses from top industry players and has enabled Alchemy Pay to strike strategic partnerships with Shopify, an international $130 billion e-commerce giant, QFPay Group, Asia’s leading payment service provider with more than 1.2 million merchants, and Arcadier, SaaS leader serving more than 130 countries’ enterprises, amongst others. Through these partnerships, Alchemy Pay gained access to over 2 million merchants across the globe and has already deployed its payment systems at over 3,000 touch points including world-renowned shoe and accessories retailer Aldo, Hong Kong’s largest home furnishing specialist Pricerite and Singapore’s iconic skybar CÉ LA VI, to name a few. Looking ahead, the company expects to rapidly on-board more businesses once the Corona pandemic situation improves. The rising blockchain fintech star recently held its first-ever ACH token launch on one of the world’s top crypto exchanges, Huobi Global, which was met with a hugely positive response from the global crypto community and the project’s 100,000 supporters and followers across its social media channels. The ACH token is expected to drive adoption of its payment services through an incentive mechanism that will reward ecosystem participants, from payment companies to merchants and buyers. In addition, the ACH token can be used to gain access to decentralized financial services, such as financing and investment, hosted on Alchemy Pay’s DeFi platform which was launched in August 2020. Dubbed by many in the blockchain industry as the “connector of real-world transactions and cryptocurrencies”, Alchemy Pay may very well be the answer to the crypto adoption conundrum and the reason why you only need your crypto wallet for all your expenses, no matter where you are. [Read Full News]( The post [Why Crypto Payments May Be Mainstream Sooner Than You Think]( first appeared on [Feed Binary](. [Read Full Story]( ------------------ [From Open Arms to Full Bans: The Latest on Crypto Regulation in Asia]( A look at the legal status of crypto in Asia, where new crypto hubs are emerging and thriving despite uneven regulation.When most people hear about buying Bitcoin (BTC) or other cryptocurrencies, they immediately think of the largest exchanges, most of which are located in Asia. Today, countries such as China and South Korea have become epicenters of blockchain innovation. However, in many countries, it’s still unclear whether cryptocurrencies are allowed, and if they are, what their status is. So, here’s how the regulation of the cryptocurrency market in Asia is shaping up and what should be expected from governments in the near future. China goes digital with the yuan Today, China is home to many cryptocurrency projects and exchanges, and yet, crypto has actually been banned for several years now. In 2017, the People’s Bank of China, the nation’s central bank, banned initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency exchanges. Then the Shanghai branch of the PBoC announced its intention to root out the crypto industry in the country, equating the token sales to the illegal placement of securities or fundraising. Soon, the biggest crypto exchanges in the country, Huobi and OKCoin, announced they had stopped local trading. The turning point came in July 2019 when a Chinese court ruled that Bitcoin was digital property. The court’s decision marked a shift in cryptocurrency adoption, and in October 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for an increase in blockchain development efforts. Furthermore, the PBoC has said it’s prioritizing the launch of a central bank digital currency. However, the Chinese government is still quite cautious in its approach to both its own cryptocurrency and digital assets in general and has yet to issue regulations. Konstantin Anissimov, executive director of exchange CEX.IO, believes that recent events in the world, such as the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent economic downturn, could push the Chinese government toward the legal adoption of cryptocurrencies:“To maintain its status as leader in the tech and finance markets, China, which after being overly restrictive just a few years ago, now accelerates the efforts to create a legal framework to regulate cryptocurrency circulation and even considers the possibility of its own digital currency.” But so far the government has not introduced a national digital currency, apparently due to the fact that it wants not only to introduce a digital cash replacement but also to create a universal payment system, such as Alipay, that will be used all over the world. At the moment, the PBoC is conducting pilot projects in the field of cryptocurrencies in several regions of the country and has registered at least a few patents related to digital currency. In early August, it also became known that some of the country’s commercial banks are conducting tests with digital yuan wallets. At the end of the month, China’s Communist Party once again announced that it is betting on blockchain as a key tool for innovating nationwide social services. Also noteworthy is that at the end of July 2019, a national project known as the Blockchain Service Network, or BSN, was launched to support medium-sized businesses in the development of blockchain projects by creating public blockchains that will comply with Chinese law and operate internationally. It was also announced that the BSN will integrate support for stablecoins, albeit no earlier than 2021, and will be able to become the infrastructure for the digital yuan. Despite all of these positive signs of blockchain “acceptance,” some Chinese businesses still don’t believe that the government will legalize cryptocurrencies because digital money does not act as currency. Yifan He, CEO of Red Date Technology a tech company involved in the BSN “For China, it is for sure that in the foreseeable future, cryptocurrencies definitely won’t be legalized in China. Until today, I see cryptocurrencies as a form of investment, not really currencies. When some real currencies change hands, most of the time they are for purchasing merchandise or services. When most cryptocurrencies change hands today, 99% of the volume is for investment purposes. Therefore, of course they won’t replace fiat money because they are not functioning as currencies.” Singapore regulates the way forward The city-state of Singapore treats cryptocurrencies positively and doesn’t ignore them, and its financial regulators were among the first in 2020 to issue relevant laws within the framework under which the country’s crypto businesses operate. In January, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the nation’s central bank, issued the Payment Services Act, regulating the circulation of cryptocurrencies and the activities of related companies, which must comply with Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism rules. Crypto companies must first register and then apply for a license to operate in Singapore. To clarify how to get a license, the Association of Cryptocurrency Enterprises and Startups Singapore has introduced a “Code of Practice” to assist companies in their applications. The government did not stop at just issuing laws; it also began developing national blockchain projects. Earlier this summer, the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced that it was ready to test Project Ubin, its multicurrency blockchain payments project designed for commercial use and intended to facilitate more efficient cross-border payments. Moreover, in June, the central bank announced its readiness to cooperate with China in the creation of a CBDC. At the moment, Singapore has clear legislation regarding cryptocurrencies, and no laws prohibit their possession, use or exchange for fiat currency. Registering a Singapore cryptocurrency company is also a legal matter. South Korea South Korea also has a clean-cut vision of cryptocurrencies; however, it approaches the regulation of digital assets in a very tough manner, viewing digital assets as legal tender. Its local exchanges are tightly controlled by government agencies, including the Financial Services Commission. In addition, the country’s Ministry of Economy and Finance can conduct comprehensive checks of Bitcoin exchanges. Since September 2017, ICOs and margin trading have been banned. In March, the South Korean government passed a bill to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges in the country. The National Assembly adopted a revised bill on reporting and conducting certain types of financial transactions, including crypto. The government has until March 2021 to implement the law. Once in effect, blockchain startups will be given a six-month grace period to bring their activities in line with the new rules. The bill will affect crypto exchanges, funds and crypto wallets; companies conducting ICOs; and other market participants. They will be required to comply with all financial reporting requirements, use only bank accounts with real names, conduct user identification such as Know Your Customer, and certify their information security management systems. In July, the government suggested introducing a tax on income from crypto trading and even set a rate of 20%, but so far, the law has not been adopted. As for the use of blockchain in private business, the government contributes to the development of this sector in several ways, including through the use of a blockchain-based payment program in the city of Seongnam and crypto storage by four of the nation’s largest banks. Indian uncertainty The relationship between the Indian government and cryptocurrencies can be confusing to understand. The Reserve Bank of India’s 2018 ban on accounting organizations serving firms that work with crypto drove some companies out of business. The government planned to go even further, and in July 2019, it proposed a draft bill that would slap anyone dealing with crypto with a big fine or a 10-year prison sentence. At the end of March, the Supreme Court of India unexpectedly heeded petitions from crypto businesses and overturned the central bank’s ban, declaring it unconstitutional. Some exchanges immediately seized the opportunity to start trading again. However, the situation has remained ambiguous ever since, as it’s still not clear whether the Indian government will push to create a regulatory framework for the development of the industry. So far, it seems that the authorities may, and want to, regulate this area, but they are hesitant, so another ban looks like an easier way. For example, just five months after the first ban was lifted, Indian officials reiterated the possibility of banning cryptocurrency trading through legislative changes. [Read Full Newsletter]( The post [From Open Arms to Full Bans: The Latest on Crypto Regulation in Asia]( first appeared on [Feed Binary](. 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