Tag Archives: ECB

Not everyone is pleased with bitcoin, but now the European Central Bank (ECB) – which described bitcoin as the “evil” spawn of 2008’s financial crisis – says it’s on the verge of doing something about it.The ECB and Its Digital PlansWhat is this plan? To develop a new centralized cryptocurrency issued by the bank. This isn’t much of a plan when you really think about it considering just how many countries and governments say they’re looking to exact the same steps. China, for example,...

The G7 meeting participants state that things like stablecoins including Facebook‘s Libra should be strictly regulated and the risks connected with them are not yet studied well. Per EU lawmaker and a German conservative Markus Ferber:“At the very least, we need a robust regulatory framework to deal with virtual currencies. The (executive EU) Commission has been way too complacent on the issue so far. With the threat of Libra on the horizon, it is time for action now.”The draft text of the...

Photo: Wikimedia CommonsI have big hopes for Christine Lagarde following her appointment as the new head of the European Central Bank. And here’s why (Warning: libertarian crypto enthusiasts should look away now).A company I co-founded held Bitcoin in the now-infamous Mt. Gox exchange. You may remember that back in 2013-14 it was the world’s leading Bitcoin exchange handling over 70% of all transactions worldwide. But in February 2014 things went horribly wrong as Mt. Gox suspended trading...

It seems Patrick Harker, the president of the Philadelphia Fed, has finally got the memo, accepting that central bank digital currencies (CBDC) are “inevitable.” Still, that isn’t enough for America to take the lead on them. Harker, although extremely late to the party, made an important caveat on the U.S plans to create a CBDC. According to Reuters, speaking at a community banking conference on Wednesday, the Fed president addressed the unavoidable adoption of CBDCs. “It is inevitable I...

Since its launch on June 18, 2019, Facebook’s Libra project has encountered mixed reactions. Now, four payment companies that had joined the social media giant as founding members of the Libra Association are hesitant. They have developed cold foot over whether to formally sign on to the crypto project. The issue was explained by people familiar with the matter.According to a new Bloomberg report, MasterCard, Visa, Stripe, and PayPal are allegedly stalling at officially joining the...

Photo: ShutterstockWell, if the regulatory scrutiny on Facebook‘s Libra cryptocurrency was not enough, even bankers have jumped in to pull down the Libra project. Recently, the United States Federal Reserve had asked some of the largest banking institutions in the country about their stand on Libra.Responding to it, the bankers have expressed risks posed by Libra like a potential decline in the deposit accounts as well as the banks’ payment volumes. As per the Bloomberg report, the banks...

A rather inspiring presentation from the head of Facebook’s Libra David Marcus seems to have inspired someone else as well and neither more nor less – Coinbase CEO himself. Yes, you’ve heard it right, Brian Armstrong came out as a real supporter of this, still developing stablecoin.The thing is that Libra is often represented as a project that carries labels such as “alienating”, “controversial” or even “poisonous”. Even though it still hasn’t come out at the light of the day, it has already...

Speaking to the German federal parliament Bundestag on Wednesday, Benoit Coeure, a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB) said that Facebook’s currency Libra could possibly fix some of the troubling issues that exist at the international payments market. However, he warned that, on the other hand, it might create other problems that will need regulators to act more liberal and creative. He said:“Libra has undoubtedly been a wakeup call for central banks and...

It appears Libra doesn’t have that many fans. The new digital currency from Facebook is stemming controversy and dislike everywhere it goes, and now the European Central Bank (ECB) is taking what it deems to be necessary action by building its own national digital coin as a means of competing with it. Libra Just Can’t Find FriendsThis isn’t the first time a country (or in this case, continent) has emerged with a new digital currency to fight Libra’s alleged attacks. The first is China, who...