The Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, reported its delegates had come to an agreement on an action plan “to drive timely global implementation” of global standards on cryptocurrencies. In a Feb. 24 publication, the FATF said the plenary for the financial watchdog — consisting of delegates from more than 200 jurisdictions — met in Paris and came to a consensus on a roadmap aimed at strengthening “implementation of FATF Standards on virtual assets and virtual asset service providers”. According to the task force, in 2024 it will report on how FATF members have moved forward on implementing the crypto …

Controversial Fox news television host Tucker Carlson has proposed a curious conspiracy theory that seeks to link airline delays in the United States and Canada with a surge in the Bitcoin price. He suggested the computer outage behind the widespread delays may have been caused by ransomware and theorized the US Government may have bought a large amount of Bitcoin to pay the ransom. However he did not provide any evidence for his claims. Speaking on his “Tucker Carlson Tonight” segment of Fox News on Jan. 17, Carlson argued that the Bitcoin (BTC) price increased 20%+ soon after the U.S. …

As borders open up following prolonged COVID-induced travel restrictions, the Metaverse, one of the latest sub-crypto ecosystems, is set to help travelers decide on the destinations they want to experience in person, reveals a new survey conducted by Booking.com personally. Popular online travel agency Booking.com surveyed 24,179 respondents across 32 countries, which revealed travelers’ strong interest in virtually exploring destinations as they decide on their itinerary. Out of the lot, people most likely to try out travel experiences in the metaverse were Gen Z (45%) and Millennials (43%). Nearly half, or 43% of the respondents, confirmed their will to use …

Many companies and industries are incorporating Web3 technologies into their business structures, and the travel industry is no exception. On Sept. 21, Flybondi, an Argentinian airline, announced a strategic alliance with TravelX, a blockchain technology company responsible for tokenizing flight tickets. The partnership intends to enable travelers to purchase airline tickets as non-fungible tokens through Binance Pay, using USDC as payment for transactions. Speaking with Cointelegraph, the Co-founder of TravelX, Facundo Diaz, shared that he was fully convinced that Web3 technologies could allow the travel industry to expand, not only in market size but also in terms of use cases …

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) reported that 11 out of 98 responding jurisdictions have started enforcing its standards on Combating the Financing of Terrorism, or CFT, and Anti-Money Laundering, or AML. In an update released Thursday on the “Implementation of the FATF Standards on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers,” the FATF reported the “vast majority” of jurisdictions assessed by the organization’s Global Network since June 2021 “still require major or moderate improvement” in AML/CFT compliance in accordance with the Travel Rule. According to the FATF, countries moving towards implementing these requirements made “limited progress” over the last …

A YouTuber started traveling the world to see whether he could survive solely on Bitcoin (BTC) as a means of payment. In the latest episode of Cointelegraph’s “Crypto Stories” series, Paco from India explained how he started his journey from the city of Bengaluru and learned from the example of travel pioneers who came before him, including Nellie Bly, who circumnavigated the globe in the late 19th century in less than 73 days. Paco worked a variety of jobs before reading up on Bitcoin and made a big decision. “This is 2021,” said Paco. “I will travel the world by …

The global economy is becoming increasingly digital, and it’s no surprise that cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are starting to have an impact on the travel industry. Many travel agencies now accept Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital currencies as payment, with some even providing discounts to customers who pay in cryptocurrency. Here is a list of popular travel booking platforms that take BTC and embrace blockchain technology. 1inch Network to bring crypto payments to the travel industry On Thursday, the decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch Network announced a partnership with the travel booking platform Travala.com, which will allow users to pay for …

The tiny Portuguese archipelago of Madeira has “adopted” Bitcoin (BTC) — but what does that mean? The announcement, made during the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, has spurned confusion and misinformation. Miguel Albuquerque, the president of the Regional Government of Madeira, hopped on the stage in April to announce: “I believe in the future, and I believe in Bitcoin.” He also said he would work to “create in Madeira a fantastic environment for Bitcoin.” However, the details remained unclear. Cointelegraph spoke to André Loja, a Madeiran entrepreneur who spearheaded the plan to bring BTC to the archipelago in the Atlantic …

Few crypto enthusiasts around the world could point to the remote island of Roatán prior to the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami. Dušan Matuska was one of them, a Bitcoin (BTC) educator whose plans to open a Bitcoin education center in a former brewery entangled with the Satoshi Nakamoto-inspired vision of a special economic zone in Honduras called Próspera. Located on Roatán, Próspera accepts Bitcoin as de facto legal tender as of April 2022. But how did a Slovakian Bitcoin miner stumble across one of the few locations worldwide to accept Bitcoin as de facto legal tender? And, what does …

Virgil Griffith, a former Ethereum (ETH) developer has been sentenced to 63 months in prison and will pay a fine of $100,000 for attending a conference and assisting North Korea use blockchain technology in contravention of economic sanctions imposed by the United States. On Tuesday, April 12, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel of the Southern District of New York handed down the decision. Judge Castel stated that “what you see here is intentionality, a deliberate, willful intent to violate the sanctions' regime,” adding that the crime was made worse because Griffith had a “desire to educate people on how to …

A Bitcoin (BTC) hostel is coming to Portugal’s shores. As it’s Europe’s first Bitcoin-only hostel, Cointelegraph spoke with the founders to find out how Bitcoin shapes the business model, from planning to architecture to the community. The Bitcoin Hostel is a homestay and hangout where Bitcoin (Lighting or on-chain) is the only acceptable payment method — a space where “the spirit of Bitcoin” shapes the decision-making process. The hostel was founded by Berliners Albert Wolframm and his girlfriend, Valeria Padimiglio. “She’s the business part, and I’m the architecture part, but I’m also more into Bitcoin,” he jokes. The Bitcoin Hostel …

Last week, the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) voted in favor of a regulatory update that could compromise the exchange platforms’ ability to deal with noncustodial crypto wallets. Should the regulatory project make it to the legislation phase in the upcoming months, it would place severe disclosure requirements on transactions between noncustodial wallets and crypto exchanges in the European Union — a process whose signs are visible in other parts of the globe as well. What happened On Thursday, March 31, ECON and LIBE members …