The Crypto Basic

During the Davos Agenda event, which runs from January 25 to 29, two separate sessions are devoted to cryptocurrencies and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC).

According to the information on the website of the World Economic Forum, participants of the Davos Agenda online event will discuss issues related to cryptocurrencies during two sessions. Sessions called Resetting Digital Currencies will be held on Monday and Thursday.

The opening session will feature five speakers, including Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and Western Union President and CEO Hikmet Ersek. Thursday’s panel includes four speakers, including Senior Government Minister of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Chairman of the Beijing-based National Institute of Financial Studies Zhu Min.

“COVID-19 has accelerated the long-term shift away from cash, Meanwhile, central bank digital currencies are emerging that have the potential to change the way people use money around the world. What measures and partnerships are needed to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the growth of digital currencies?”

Davos Agenda is a five-day online summit that will bring together the world’s leading figures in the finance industry and government representatives. Sessions on cryptocurrencies fall under the theme of the Fair Economy Summit. Other topics include “Technology for Good, “”How to Save the Planet,” and ” A Healthy Future.”

Recall that in December 2020, the WEF tested blockchain platform to track carbon emissions. In October 2020, the World Economic Forum and the Global Blockchain Business Council released a report exploring standards for blockchain development and regulation around the world.

According to a July 2020 WEF report, new technologies, including blockchain, are able to boost economic growth through “nature-friendly” solutions.

The host of the show Mad Money on CNBC, Jim Kramer, offered his investment strategy to the winner of the Powerball lottery, who won $731.1 million.

After the draw on Wednesday, the identity of the winner of the jackpot remain disclosed, it is known that the ticket was purchased in a small shop in Maryland. The state is one of the few where winners remain anonymous.

Kramer believes that the sixth-largest prize in the history of the lottery puts its owner in a strong position, and he does not need to take risks with the investment. But the problem of wealthy people is inflation, in particular — hyperinflation, Kramer added.

As one of the measures to invest his lottery, Kramer suggested investing 5% of it in Bitcoin. He also advised not to buy Bitcoin for the entire amount as it is highly volatile asset.

“This is an important new means of saving,” said the former hedge fund manager.

Kramer identified precious metals like gold, real estate, and art as hyperinflation-resistant assets. In them, he also called for investing 5% of the winnings. In his opinion, it is not necessary to invest more than 20% of the winning amount in the stock market.

The CNBC host owns some Bitcoins, which he bought at a rate below $18,000. According to him, digital assets do not occupy a large share in his portfolio.

 Recall, a resident of Illinois invested in Bitcoin with half of the lottery amount of $500,000. He purchased the top cryptocurrency in May 2019 and intended not to touch the asset for at least five year.

China’s largest cities plan to support testing of the digital currency electronic payment (DCEP), the Global Times reports.

Read: China Is Testing A Hardware Wallet For Digital Yuan

Beijing Mayor Chen Jining said that the capital will accelerate the construction of innovative demonstration zones for financial technologies in 2021 and will promote DCEP.

The mayor of Shanghai, Gong Zheng, when delivering a government work report, said that the city will continue the policy of financial openness and support the promotion of the digital Yuan.

Read: China Has Begun Testing Of The Digital Yuan In Atms

The governor of Guangdong Province, Ma Xinjui, promised that the authorities will promote the transformation of Shenzhen into an innovative pilot zone for DCEP.

In October 2020, the Shenzhen authorities distributed 50,000 “red envelopes” with 200 digital Yuan each, to residents through a lottery. During the second testing phase, twice as many similar lots were distributed in January 2021.

 On January 20, the third round of testing of the digital Yuan started. The third phase of the digital Yaun trials involves residents of the Longhua district, among whom 100,000 “red envelopes” worth a total of 20 million Yuan were distributed.

Recall that a similar mass testing of DCEP also took place in the city of Suzhou. Other than offline payments, digital Yaun was also tested as online payments in online stores.

Among major economies four nations have started testing central bank digital currencies.

Read: China’s State-Backed Blockchain Project Has Unveiled A New Plan For Central Bank Digital Currencies

Microsoft Corporation and the Indian company Tanla have launched a blockchain based communication platform for confidential and secure messaging.

According to the statement, Microsoft was the development partner and architect of the platform, Wisely is designed for enterprises, mobile operators, content providers and other companies. Tanla and Microsoft will co-sell the product globally.

Built on Microsoft Azure, the edge-to-edge global blockchain network for secure data exchange, including SMS, email, and messenger messages.

CEO of Tanla Platforms Ltd., said,

 We’re excited to launch Wisely, our new global platform powered by Microsoft. It is a gamechanger for enterprises, mobile carriers, OTT players, marketers, and industry regulators. With the launch of Wisely, Tanla continues to be a market leader in the domain of commercial communication by enabling trusted customer experiences.

Companies can access the network through a single API that offers multi-channel capabilities. The intelligent design of the Wisely platform using blockchain ensures ” complete transparency of data, providing a single source of reliable information for all stakeholders.”

Platform has received three patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in the field of cryptocurrency and blockchain.

Recall that in December, Microsoft, together with the consulting firm Ernst & Young (EY), introduced a platform on the blockchain that allows to manage the contracts of content creators and partners involved in game development.

Asset management company Grayscale Investments has filed documents for the creation of a number of new cryptocurrency trust. Currently, Grayscale is considered one of the largest corporate investment companies in the cryptocurrency sector.

The document shows plans to launch Grayscale ChainLink trust (LINK), Grayscale Tezos trust (XTZ), Grayscale Filecoin trust (FIL), Grayscale Decentralized trust (MANA), and Grayscale Livepeer trust (Lpt). 

The launch dates of the new trusts are unknown.

Chainlink, one of the most important projects of the DeFi ecosystem, and Grayscale has already moved to set up a LINK fund. According to official documents, Grayscale is applying Chainlink Fund as ”Statutory Trust”, it means it can also be traded outside the state of Delaware.

A tweet by Pentoshi, a renowned cryptocurrency analyst shows document about Grayscale application for Link and other trust.

$LINK pic.twitter.com/1deBqDNsJp

— Pentoshi (@Pentosh1) January 21, 2021

The image shows Grayscale making similar trust for Mana, LPT, XTZ and FIL other than LINK.

Grayscale has not made an official statement regarding any of these trusts, and there is no confirmation. Grayscale recently removed XRP from the GDLC trust.

The Bank of France announced the successful completion of testing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for interbank settlements using the Iznes platform based on the blockchain.

Read: UK National Health System Will Use Blockchain Technology For Its Covid-19 Vaccines

According to the Bank of France, as part of a pilot project to test the central bank digital currency (CBDC), from March to December 2020, transactions totaling about 2 million euros were made.

Payments were made in digital currency using the Iznes platform developed by the British startup SETL. Insurance group Groupama, financial giant Citigroup, French bank CACEIS, Asset manager OFI AM and IT company DXC also took part in the testing.

Read: IMF Has Announced That Countries In North Africa, Central Asia And The Middle East Can Turn To Technologies Like Blockchain

The experiment was aimed at developing and implementing smart contracts that allow the Bank of France to issue digital currency, control its circulation and conduct settlements between financial organizations.

The Central Bank believes that blockchain will increase the efficiency of international payments and improve the functioning of the economy in Europe. The Bank of France also said that it will continue to conduct additional experiments under this project until mid-2021.

The regulators needs to understand how the central bank digital currency (CBDC) can improve the conduct of cross-border payments and become accessible to institutional clients. Also, such experiments allow to understand what changes should be made to the monetary legislation.

Recall that in May 2020, the Central Bank of France, along with the bank Societe Generale, successfully tested the Digital Euro to understand the mechanisms of its operation and identify potential risks.

Read: China’s State-Backed Blockchain Project Has Unveiled A New Plan For Central Bank Digital Currencies

Earlier, Bank of France Chairman, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, said that stable coins can seriously affect the financial sovereignty of the European Union, so central banks should accelerate the development of state-owned digital currencies.