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European Central Bank Policymaker Backs Stablecoins over Bitcoin

European central bank policymaker backs stablecoins over bitcoin

European Central Bank Policymaker Backs Stablecoins over Bitcoin

European central bank policymaker backs stablecoins over bitcoin

European Central Bank policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau believes that stablecoins can play an important role in the financial system as they aren’t as volatile as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, reported Bloomberg, May 15, 2019.

What’s Not Understood is Often Feared

In the past seven days, bitcoin’s price has reached from $5,000 to almost $8,000 at the time of writing. While this is exciting for the crypto community, it only creates more doubt for those in the traditional financial system. The growth of bitcoin as well as other cryptocurrencies is unprecedented; no technical indicators predicted the rally, nor did any event pose much effect on it. And as it goes by the tradition, what cannot be understood is most often feared.

Cryptocurrencies have previously shown the same volatility while shaking off their value. Thankfully, we have stablecoins that remain unaffected by the volatility that ails the cryptocurrency markets. And by far, they have helped attract quite a few major financial players in the cryptocurrency sphere.

Recently, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi criticized cryptos saying they weren’t real money. However, making more sense, ECB’s policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau stated that though bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were not suited for financial institutions, stablecoins could be used for “transactions involving tokenized securities or good and services.” He stated that stablecoins are more promising than traditional cryptos.

Banks Are Joining the Crypto Industry

Whether it’s the fear of missing out or the excitement to innovate and revolutionize, day after day banks are showing more interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain. As reported by BTC Manager on May 6, 2019, Iran Central Bank was creating its own blockchain platform for the financial sector which would use Iran’s in-house cryptocurrency.

A step ahead of all central banks across the globe are Central Bank of Canada and Monetary Authority of Singapore who exchanged digital currencies using blockchain. This was the first time when two central banks settled payments in cryptocurrencies. The transaction was supported by JPMorgan Chase & Co., who have also created their own stablecoin, JPM Coin, to help financial institutions settle payments on the blockchain network without being concerned about the volatility.

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Published at Thu, 16 May 2019 06:17:40 +0000

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Australia: Firms Should Help Authorities Hack Encrypted Messages

Australia is the latest country to announce plans for mandatory decryption powers against services such as Telegram and WhatsApp.


Senator: ‘All Communication Will Use Encryption’

Stating concerns surrounding terrorism monitoring, Attorney-General George Brandis said that “more than 40%” of intercepted messages were encrypted.

“Within a short number of years, effectively, 100 per cent of communications are going to use encryption,” local publication The Age quotes Brandis.

This problem is going to degrade if not destroy our capacity to gather and act upon intelligence unless it’s addressed.

While he added the government would no longer pursue legislation forcing firms to include “backdoor” features to allow state hacking, requiring participation in assisting inquiries may be stepped up in future.

Attorney-General George Brandis

The law, the Senator said, should be “sufficiently strong to require companies, if need be, to assist in response to a warrant to assist law enforcement or intelligence to decrypt a communication.”

Hacking Versus ‘Protection’

Lawmakers will look at updates in the context of international data-sharing, gathering ideas from Australia’s intelligence partners.

Reacting to the idea, industry officials appeared supportive. Former Australian Signals Directorate deputy director Mike Burgess told The Age:

Former Australian Signals Directorate deputy director Mike Burgess

I personally want to live in a world where reasonable people and companies would say, ‘You know what? Under the rule of law, and with the right oversight and a warrant, communications can be listened to when it’s needed to protect us.

While disturbing to users of encrypted messaging platforms, schemes to crack them are by no means limited to over-zealous policymakers responding to perceived terrorism threats.

Russia Mulls Blanket Bans

Across the globe in Russia, encrypted consumer tools are also currently subject to investigation, with authorities publicly calling for an outright ban on the anonymous use of services such as Telegram.

In a May interview with RNS, Telegram  stated:

Not one government or special agency has managed to get one bite of information out of us, and they never will.

It added that due to data being stored in various locations, “forcing Telegram to surrender any form of data would require an unrealistic level of mutual cooperation involving several states.”

Telegram Messenger

Telegram also recently partnered with bitcoin-accepting payments provider Stripe to allow in-app purchases from chatbots. The partnership includes support for Russian domestic payment gateways including Yandex.Money and Qiwi, which are popular with Russian bank card holders.

Regulation of cryptocurrencies, and well as a so-called ‘Russian bitcoin,’ are all part of Russia’s central bank activities this quarter.

What do you think about Australia’s plans for encrypted messaging regulation? Let us know in the comments below!


Images courtesy of AAP, LinkedIn, Telegram, AdobeStock

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