The Republic of Uzbekistan will never adopt cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) as a payment method, according to a central bank official. Behzod Khamraev, deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan (CBU), predicted that local authorities will never allow residents to use Bitcoin as payment, alleging that BTC is backed by nothing. In an interview with local business publication Spot.uz, Khamraev argued that Bitcoin is widely considered “speculative” and will never become equal to fiat currencies like the United States dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen or the Russian ruble. The official pointed out that there are about 28 trillion …

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) has become a member of the Hedera Hashgraph council for decentralized governance. IITM is one of the top institutes for technical education in India, which falls under the direct jurisdiction of India’s Ministry of Education. As a member of the Hedera Governing Council, IITM has become one of the 39 global organizations that run initial network nodes for governing the Hedera public ledger built on distributed ledger technology (DLT). In addition to advancing DLTs capabilities in education and research, IITM plans to test use cases around public blockchains for payments via Hedera Consensus …

Just a week after Bitcoin (BTC) became legal tender in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has admitted that the rollout of the state Bitcoin wallet was too much of a challenge. Chivo, El Salvador’s official Bitcoin wallet, has temporarily disabled new registrations and halted app downloads for new smartphone models due to ongoing issues with the app, Bukele said on Twitter late Monday. “Both things will be enabled until the application has no errors,” the president noted, adding that the Chivo team expects to resume registrations and downloads in a couple more days. “The technical errors of the Chivo wallet …

The price of Litecoin (LTC) rose to more than $237 earlier on Monday following erroneous reports from major news outlets that United States retailer Walmart would be introducing a payment option for the cryptocurrency on all of its e-commerce websites. CNBC, Reuters, Decrypt and others reported on Monday that Walmart planned to have a “Pay with Litecoin Option” for its retail websites starting on Oct. 1 as part of a partnership with the Litecoin Foundation, the organization financing and promoting adoption of the Litecoin ecosystem. The reports seemed to spawn from a single press release through distribution service GlobeNewsWire. The …

In the last 24 hours, Terra (LUNA), a blockchain protocol focused on building a global payments system powered by the UST stablecoin, rallied to a new all-time high at $45. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that, since bottoming at a low of $5.61 on July 20, the price of LUNA has ripped 720% higher to a record high of $45 on Sept. 10. The swift rally also lifted the total value locked (TVL) on the Terra protocol to a new all-time high at $7.83 billion on Sept. 5, making Terra the fourth-ranked blockchain platform by TVL, according …

Bancoagrícola, El Salvador’s largest financial institution, is set to boost the country’s Bitcoin adoption policy following its partnership with digital payments gateway Flexa. According to an announcement by Flexa on Thursday, Bancoagrícola has inked a deal with the crypto payment network to enable Bitcoin (BTC) transfers for the bank’s customers, including retail and merchant clients. As part of the partnership, Bancoagrícola customers can make credit card payments denominated in United States dollars via Flexa or other Lightning Network-enabled wallets like Chivo and Éclair. According to the release, these payments will not attract any additional fees and will cover loans and …

Australian buy now pay later (BNPL) giant Afterpay — now part of Jack Dorsey's Square — has said that it is likely to pursue cryptocurrency services once the regulatory framework is clear. Following Afterpay’s submission to the Senate inquiry into “Australia as a Technology and Financial Center,” which posited that merchants could slash payment costs by utilizing cryptocurrencies, representatives spoke to the inquiry on Sept. 8. Afterpay’s vice president for public policy and communications Damian Kassabgi said that “this idea of being able to exchange currencies from person to person or to a merchant without going through the traditional rails …

Australian buy now pay later (BNPL) firm Afterpay believes that local merchants can slash payment costs by utilizing cryptocurrencies. In a submission to the Senate inquiry into “Australia as a Technology and Financial Center,” Afterpay stated that the use of blockchain-based transactions could cut the fees associated with traditional payment methods, including card issuer, network operator and banking fees: “Merchants stand to benefit considerably from the cryptocurrency model, as card network fees are entirely removed from the equation and the customer/payer bears the transaction costs.” Under the crypto model, the customer would front the cost of validating the payment on …

El Salvador’s recognition of Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender has opened up new payment options for its citizens, with fast-food empire McDonald’s reportedly accepting payments in the cryptocurrency through Lightning Network. Journalist Aaron van Wirdum broke the news Tuesday after he visited a McDonald’s restaurant in El Salvador, where he was presented with a printed QR code directing him to an invoice page on Lightning Network. McDonald’s had 19 locations across the Latin American country as of 2019. Just walked into a McDonald's in San Salvador to see if I could pay for my breakfast with bitcoin, tbh fully expecting …

United States-based e-commerce platform Shop.com is the latest site to adopt cryptocurrency payments. The company, which is owned by Market America, announced its partnership with crypto payment service provider BitPay, which will allow it to accept payments in several cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC). The new partnership enables Shop.com users to select the BitPay option during checkout to pay via their crypto wallets. Currently, users have the option to pay with Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ether (ETH), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Dogecoin (DOGE) and Litecoin (LTC), as well as five U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins. Describing the partnership as the next chapter in …

The Dallas Mavericks, the NBA franchise owned by Mark Cuban, have started a cashback rewards program to incentivize merchandise and ticket payments in Dogecoin (DOGE). The rewards program is dubbed “Mavs Cryptomania,” and customers who spend more than $150 worth of Dogecoin in one transaction will receive a $25 e-gift card that they can use for online purchases in the Dallas Mavericks shop. The program is to run until Sept. 30. At the time of writing, users will need to outlay 505 DOGE in order to receive the e-gift card. The Mavs started accepting DOGE for payments back in March …

Seety, a digital parking startup based in Belgium, has introduced crypto payment support for parking tickets. According to a report by DataNews on Thursday, the company, which is one of the firms bootstrapped by Belgian accelerator program Start it @KBC, has rolled out a crypto payment feature in Antwerp and Brussels. Beginning Thursday, Seety users will be able to use Bitcoin (BTC) to pay for parking tickets in both cities. In addition to Bitcoin, customers can also use cryptocurrencies such as Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Litecoin (LTC), as well as stablecoins like Dai and USD Coin …