Last month, Venezuela launched the world’s first state sponsored and oil-backed cryptocurrency, Petro. Inspired by this, Cambodia may soon be following suit. This coin is expected to be announced at ASEAN 2018 Blockchain Summit. Organizers have high expectations for the coin, expecting it to compete with VISA as a main method of payment. As with Petro, Entapay also plans on circumventing western economic sanctions imposed on the country and ease the economically struggling country.
A russian research center plans on utilizing blockchain technology to protect the integrity of the 2018 presidential elections. The project plans on using a version of the ethereum blockchain to soothe public fears of meddling with poll results. This is one of the world’s first uses of the blockchain in voting. This program is set to launch on March 12th before elections begin March 18th. Using a blockchain for voting ensures that polls results are legitimate by allowing individual voters to view and analyze the results for themselves to determine the legitimacy of the election.
Coinbase has been commanded to release thousands of users data to the IRS. Initially, the IRS demanded a broad spectrum of customer data, however a court ruling decided that only “name, address, tax identification number, date of birth, account opening records, copies of passport or driver’s license, all wallet addresses, and all public keys for all accounts/wallets/vaults.” The full court ruling can be found here. () Although this narrowed request of information might be considered a small victory, the released documents still could represent a massive invasion of privacy, potentially linking many thousands of addresses to real identities, making the blockchain less private for everyone.
Using Ripple’s blockchain, the Japan Bank Consortium, a group of 61 japanese banks, plans to release a domestic instant payment mobile app called MoneyTap. Ripple claims the Japan Bank Consortium represents over three quarters of japanese banking assets. The app plans to make domestic payments more expedient and less costly for all of Japan. MoneyTap will launch during Autumn 2018 and allow the consortium’s customers to transfer money instantly using QR codes, bank accounts, or phones numbers, avoiding high ATM fees.
Arizona House Committee has passed a bill that would allow taxes to be paid in bitcoin or other cryptocurrency. According to the bill, “The department shall convert cryptocurrency payments to United States Dollars at the prevailing rate within twenty-four hours after receipt and shall credit the taxpayer’s account with the converted dollar amount.” Payment would be able to be made in “bitcoin or other cryptocurrency, using electronic peer-to-peer systems.” If this bill were to pass, Arizona would become the only state accepting crypto as a method of taxation.
