The Central bank of Brazil — or Banco Central do Brazil — is laying the groundwork for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) with an official statement revealing it has already formed a dedicated group to study the crypto industry. According to the central bank, the team consists of 12 members in an intergovernmental group that will assess how the CBDC could fit with the national payments ecosystem and what its impact could be on the economy and the society. Previous reports detailed that Brazil spends around 90 billion reals ($16 billion) annually to guarantee a functional supply of paper …

Chiliz (CHZ), a major sports-focused digital currency, is getting its first listing on a Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange. Mercado Bitcoin, the largest crypto trading platform in Brazil, will soon roll out Chiliz trading against the local currency, Brazilian real (BRL). Chiliz token is the first utility token listed on Mercado Bitcoin As officially announced on July 13, Mercado Bitcoin users are already able to make Chiliz deposits with BRL. Trading will be launched on July 14. Chiliz token is the seventh digital currency supported on Mercado Bitcoin exchange. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the platform features major cryptos like Bitcoin (BTC), …

OKEx, a major global cryptocurrency exchange, is embracing the Latin American crypto market by launching a fiat gateway for three local currencies. According to a July 3 announcement, OKEx users can now buy Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) in exchange for the Argentine peso (ARS), the Brazilian real (BRL), and the Mexican peso (MXN) via a direct bank transfer. OKEx implements Settle Network’s Latamex tool OKEx’s partnership with a company called Settle Network allowed them to enable these features. Settle Network is claimed to be the largest digital settlement network in Latin America. The new service is provided through Latamex, …

The payments feature of the popular messaging platform WhatsApp remains suspended in Brazil, despite local regulators easing restrictions placed on its owner, Facebook. On June 24, Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense, known locally by its Portuguese acronym ‘CADE’ suspended an agreement between Facebook and Brazilian payment firm Cielo to process payments for WhatsApp. On June 30, it reversed the decision, however WhatsApp payments remain suspended as a result of parallel action taken by Brazil’s central bank. New information CADE reversed its sanctions on Facebook and Cielo after receiving information from the firms evidencing a substantial reduction in the risks …

Brazil’s central bank has ordered Mastercard and Visa to suspend processing money transfers on behalf of Facebook’s WhatsApp. According to official information shared with Cointelegraph Brazil, the Central Bank of Brazil (BC) took action against WhatsApp Pay “to preserve an adequate competitive environment” and allow the central bank to assess the risks posed by the firm to the country's existing financial sector. Visa and Mastercard will face heavy fines and administrative sanctions if they do not suspend activities relating to WhatsApp payments. Bank will assess the risks The Central Bank of Brazil (BC) has moved to suspend the operations of …

Some entrepreneurs have been trying to increase data privacy by combining encryption and blockchain technology. There are projects like Oasis Labs and Enigma that focus entirely on preserving users’ privacy. Meanwhile, others have been focusing on preventing data retention by companies. Thus, there is no way to guarantee that personal data is deleted in a company’s data system. Blockchain technology’s reliable consensus ensures that people’s data is used correctly. Protection against software and hardware attacks Companies like Oasis Labs, which designed the Ekiden system, run smart contracts outside the blockchain within a Trusted Execution Environment, or TEE, node to enable …

From a technical viewpoint, blockchain is a growing records list that is cryptographically tied to and managed by a peer-to-peer network. At the same time, they join a protocol of communication among nodes to validate new blocks. Essentially, a blockchain is a way of validating data transactions in a permanent and immutable manner to guarantee that the transaction: Has not been corrupted. Avoids double-spending. May transfer value. We can also say that blockchain technology is a decentralized network where all the records are engraved in a distributed way and shared in several devices spread throughout the world. The records are …

Several data violations, like the Cambridge Analytica scandal, have brought forth questions regarding how companies and governments should deal with the data entrusted to them, and they have also increased the search for the development of new technologies to preserve the privacy of companies and users. Consequently, countries and regulators have rushed to set new compliance requirements to deal with user privacy and data collection — like the General Data Protection Regulation in Europe or the General Data Protection Law in Brazil, to name a couple. Parallel to that, there has been a new trend to seek new technologies like …

An interactive map showing the level of cryptocurrency interest worldwide reveals that Bitcoin searches are most concentrated in countries in Africa and South America. According to the map published at Blockchaincenter.net, Google Trends data shows that Bitcoin (BTC) dominates search interest in Africa. 94.7% of all searches related to cryptocurrencies—including BTC, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Cardano (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE), Ethereum (ETH), IOTA, Litecoin (LTC), Monero (XMR), XRP, and Tron (TRX)—in Kenya are for Bitcoin, while Nigeria and South Africa had high percentages of 89.4% and 89%, respectively. Source: Blockchaincenter.net Crypto adoption in Africa The search indicates countries in Africa may become …

Brazil could be the next area for crypto firm Ripple to reach with a cross-border payments corridor, which could lead to its use in other Latin American nations. In an interview posted to the ‘Future of Finance’ YouTube channel on June 8, Ripple Head of Global Banking Marjan Delatinne said the crypto firm was working on the development of a cross-border payment system for Brazil. When explaining Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) to moderator Dominic Hobson, Delatinne said the firm was planning to extend its services to “exotic corridors”, naming countries like the Philippines and Brazil as markets “where you don’t …

Privacy-oriented cryptocurrency Dash has announced its first quarter of 2020 financial report to investors, revealing solid growth in adoption and commercial payments. According to the report, commercial payments using Dash grew 104% for Q1, helped by a number of partnerships in the Latin American region. Solid year-over-year growth During Q1 2020 the number of active Dash wallets installed on mobile devices reached 101,747, representing a 214% increase year-over-year and a 21% increase on the previous quarter. In the same period, the median number of daily commercial payments using Dash grew to 17,127, a growth of 104% year-over-year. This growth has …

Ripple, the company associated with the XRP cryptocurrency, had a closed-door meeting with the central bank of Brazil on May 30 to discuss “institutional matters”. According to the financial institution’s website, its president Roberto Campos Neto had a video conference with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and three other representatives of the crypto firm. There’s little detail about the talk since it was closed to the media, although the website mentions “institutional matters” as the meeting’s general purpose. Ripple’s Brazil plans Ripple’s ambitious plans for Latin America and Brazil in particular surfaced in June last year, when the company launched a …