The Latest: Deadly Police Raid In Rio, Scottish Elections, Pizza Vending Machines Pope Francis at the swearing-in ceremony for the Vatican s Swiss Guard - Abaca/ZUMA 2020-05-07
Welcome to Friday, where a shooting at a favela in Rio kills 25, the Pfizer jab shows promising results against COVID variants, and pizza vending machines arrive in Rome. We also look at how central banks are finally starting to take an interest in cryptocurrencies.
• COVID-19: Pfizer vs. variants, pandemic Olympics: Two different studies show that Pfizer-BioNTech s vaccine is highly effective in preventing death and serious illness from the English and South African variants. Meanwhile, with less than three months to go before the summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan has decided to extend its COVID-19 state of emergency until May 31st.
Crypto Tipping Point: Is Digital Currency Too Big To Fail? Representations of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin virtual currencies. - Yuriko Nakao/AFLO/ZUMA
Now that central banks are opening to the idea of digital currencies, there may no turning back. But it comes with real risks, especially with regards to China s ambitions.
-Analysis-
PARIS The Germans may be fiercely attached to good old-fashioned banknotes, but their finance minister, Olaf Scholz, is looking to the future: A sovereign Europe needs innovative and competitive payment solutions. As such, it must be at the forefront of the issue of digital central bank currencies and must actively push it forward, he said on April 16.
While there’s no launch date yet, the People’s Bank of China is likely to be the first major central bank to issue a digital version of its currency, the yuan, seeking to keep up with and control of a rapidly digitizing economy. Trials and tests are underway in several cities, with the Covid-19 pandemic and need for social distancing adding fresh impetus. Unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, the digital yuan won’t have any presumption of anonymity and its value will be as stable as the
How China Is Closing In on Its Own Digital Currency: QuickTake washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
This article was first published in FinansWatch.
PA Consulting’s Thomas Bjørnstad, financial services expert, is quoted in an article discussing a digital central bank currency.
In the wake of the strong interest in cryptocurrency, it is time to look ahead and consider if central banks will start issuing digital money before there is an imbalance in the system?
If the use of a cryptocurrency or private payment solutions becomes too great, the state and the central bank could lose control of the monetary system and they will never want to find themselves in that position.
In response, tighter regulation is now on the cards in Europe and will include rules on market manipulation and insider trading as well as new rules and fees for issuers and service providers. Norges Bank is currently investigating the alternative of issuing digital central bank money (DSP).