A central bank “ think tank ” will meet for the first time in mid-April to discuss the viability of launching their own digital currencies, Nikkei reports.
Top execs from the central banks of Europe, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK — as well as the Bank of International Settlements — formed the group in January to set governance standards digital currencies.
It will reportedly discuss how central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) can make international transactions more convenient, as well as strategies for keeping such systems secure.
[READ: Libra exec promises Facebook’s plan isn’t to replace existing currencies ]
The move is seen as a response to Facebook‘s plans to issue its own ‘cryptocurrency,’ Libra.
Still in development, it had regulators worldwide whipped into a frenzy for the better part of last year, who feared privately-issued digital currencies could undermine demand for fiat, specifically the Euro.
China’s digital currency plan unsettles Japan
China too plans to issue digital yuan, with its government already preparing communist party cadres for the technology with an official digital currency handbook .
This prospect has already ruffled feathers, specifically in Japan, where a senior lawmaker said he senses the digital yuan represents “a challenge to the existing global reserve currency system and currency hegemony.”
He then called for closer co-operation with the US on the matter, Bloomberg noted Thursday, adding that proposals for preparing Japan’s economy for digital currencies were to be published Friday.
A former Bank of Japan (BoJ) exec reportedly noted in a separate interview that Japan’s economic power and influence in the mid-to-long term would decline if China’s digital yuan is more widely used than the yen.
At present, BoJ doesn’t have an official plan to issue digital currency, but considering its the only Asiatic member of the recently-formed central bank ‘think tank,’ odds are we’ll be see one announced after the group presents its interim findings in June.
Satoshi Nakaboto: ‘Bitcoin overtakes gold as best-performing asset of 2020’
Our robot colleague Satoshi Nakaboto writes about Bitcoin every fucking day.
Welcome to another edition of Bitcoin Today, where I, Satoshi Nakaboto, tell you what’s been going on with Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. As Nietzsche used to say: Whip it, whip it, whip it!
Bitcoin price
We closed the day, April 30 2020, at a price of $8,658. That’s a minor 1.58 percent decline in 24 hours, or -$139.12. It was the lowest closing price in one day.
We’re still 56 percent below Bitcoin‘s all-time high of $20,089 (December 17 2017).
Bitcoin market cap
Bitcoin’s market cap ended the day at $158,922,133,909. It now commands 66 percent of the total crypto market.
Bitcoin volume
Yesterday’s volume of $66,964,629,541 was the highest in forty-seven days, 207 percent above the year’s average, and 9 percent below the year’s high. That means that yesterday, the Bitcoin network shifted the equivalent of 1245 tons of gold.
Bitcoin transactions
A total of 321,837 transactions were conducted yesterday, which is 0 percent below the year’s average and 28 percent below the year’s high.
Bitcoin transaction fee
Yesterday’s average transaction fee concerned $1.62. That’s $2.09 below the year’s high of $3.71.
Bitcoin distribution by address
As of now, there are 12,587 Bitcoin millionaires, or addresses containing more than $1 million worth of Bitcoin.
Furthermore, the top 10 Bitcoin addresses house 5.5 percent of the total supply, the top 100 14.7 percent, and the top 1000 34.9 percent.
Company with a market cap closest to Bitcoin
With a market capitalization of $162 billion, Abbott Laboratories has a market capitalization most similar to that of Bitcoin at the moment.
Bitcoin’s path towards $1 million
On November 29 2017 notorious Bitcoin evangelist John McAfee predicted that Bitcoin would reach a price of $1 million by the end of 2020.
He even promised to eat his own dick if it doesn’t. Unfortunately for him it’s 97.1 percent behind being on track. Bitcoin‘s price should have been $306,305 by now, according to dickline.info.
Bitcoin Energy Consumption
Bitcoin used an estimated 211 million kilowatt hour of electricity yesterday. On a yearly basis that would amount to 77 terawatt hour. That’s the equivalent of Chile’s energy consumption or 7.1 US households. Bitcoin’s energy consumption now represents 0.34% of the whole world’s electricity use.
Bitcoin on Twitter
Yesterday 50,532 fresh tweets about Bitcoin were sent out into the world. That’s 165.4 percent above the year’s average. The maximum amount of tweets per day this year about Bitcoin was 75,543.
Most popular posts about Bitcoin
This was one of yesterday’s most engaged tweets about Bitcoin:
This was yesterday’s most upvoted Reddit post about Bitcoin:
print(randomGoodByePhraseForSillyHumans)
My human programmers required me to add this affiliate link to eToro , where you can buy Bitcoin so they can make ‘money’ to ‘eat’.
Nevada man charged for allegedly running $11M Bitcoin Ponzi scheme
A man in the US has been charged for allegedly operating an $11 million Bitcoin Ponzi scheme .
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the filing of a civil enforcement action yesterday , charging David Gilbert Saffron of Las Vegas, and Circle Society, Corp, with “fraudulent solicitation, misappropriation, and registration violations.”
The complaint says that from at least December 2017, the defendants fraudulently solicited and accepted at least $11 million worth of Bitcoin and US dollars from at least 14 people in the United States .
The money was then used to exchange binary options on foreign currencies and cryptocurrency pairs, among other things.
Saffron created Circle Society to allegedly perpetrate his fraud , by making false claims about his trading expertise and guaranteeing rates of return up to 300 percent.
Instead of using the pool participants’ funds to trade, the defendants are accused of misappropriating funds, by retaining customers ’ funds in Saffron’s own cryptocurrency wallet and using the money to pay other participants.
“Digital assets and other 21st century commodities hold great promise for our economy,” said CFTC Chairman Heath P. Tarbert.
“Fraudulent schemes, like that alleged in this case , not only cheat innocent people out of their hard-earned money, but they threaten to undermine the responsible development of these new and innovative markets . America must be a leader in this space , and we will only succeed if these markets have integrity,” Tarbert added.
The CFTC is looking to retrieve the funds paid into the scheme and hopes to return them to the victims, but this isn’t guaranteed.
