The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) and associated organizations marshalled a sizable team of researchers in four low- and middle-income countries – India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Mexico – to study inclusion issues related to retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) design. They released the results of their 15-month research project Jan. 13. In spite of a growing body of work related to CBDC, “few if any proponents have offered practical insight into how CBDC will promote greater access to financial services,” the DCI, along with the MIT Media Lab and Maiden Labs, claimed. The authors considered …

In one of the more striking early scenes from P.T. Anderson’s 2007 film, There Will Be Blood, there is a gas explosion that destroys the drilling rig set up by oil tycoon Daniel Plainview. Noticing one of his employees observing the situation dejectedly, Plainview rebukes the man, saying: “What are you looking so miserable about? There’s a whole ocean of oil under our feet. No one can get at it except for me!” Access to and possession of that oil would catapult Plainview, like it did many of his real-world counterparts, to the highest stratosphere of wealth. These days, rather …

Cointelegraph hit the gym with Ray Youssef, co-founder and CEO of Paxful, to tackle Bitcoin adoption in the Global South. In between sets and a little out of breath, Youssef told Cointelegraph, “The global South is where we should be looking” for Bitcoin (BTC) adoption. A New Yorker born in Egypt, Youssef regularly visits Africa and the Global South to promote Bitcoin and peer-to-peer finance. He is determined to bring Bitcoin to those living and working across Africa and to undermine the “Economic apartheid” created by government-issued fiat money. Youssef is a firm believer that government-backed, fiat money is a …

The Southeast Asian nation of Vietnam now ranks among the top nations adopting cryptocurrencies. Indeed, the country has ranked first on Chainalysis’ Global Crypto Adoption Index for two years in a row. Chainalysis’ research methodology took into account population-adjusted adoption in crypto platforms ranging from centralized exchanges to peer-to-peer (P2P) payment networks. Web traffic to major crypto networks was analyzed to determine countries with the highest interest and adoption percentages. That said, Vietnam’s high adoption rate is a puzzling phenomenon, begging the question: Why is crypto adoption so high in the country? No cryptocurrency taxes There are numerous reasons why …

In modern times of rapid globalization and digitization, technological developments have now reached such proportions that the usage of cryptocurrencies is no new phenomenon. The technology behind blockchain opens the internet for financial services by replacing trust, a fundamental component of the financial system for centuries, with transparency integrated into a decentralized network. Thereby, blockchain bears the potential to help achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by empowering the unbanked, predominantly women, reducing transaction fees as well as creating an alternative source of liquidity. Only 57.7% of adults in Ghana in 2021 had a bank account. Unable to …

This week, 44 central bankers from developing countries around the world are attending a conference in El Salvador to discuss financial inclusion, financing for small and medium-sized businesses and Bitcoin (BTC). Central bank delegates from Ghana to Burundi, Jordan to the Maldives and Pakistan to Costa Rica arrived in San Salvador for the conference upon El SalvadorPresident Nayib Bukele’s invitation. Organized by the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, a global policy leadership alliance, and in partnership with El Salvador’s central bank, the conference will run for three days. In a tweet, the head of El Salvador central bank, Douglas Rodríguez, shared: …

If Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were somehow transported to the present day and given a newspaper, the apparent lack of class conflict would probably make the revolutionaries think they’d won. They would see a society split on all manner of subjects — from identity politics to the correct COVID-19 strategy — but virtually silent on the eternal struggle between labor and capital, the oppressors and the exploited. How different it would be if they’d returned just 10 years ago when the Occupy movement was in full swing, with tent cities springing up in protest against crony capitalism, corporate greed …

Where I grew up, on the southern border in Texas, a tremendous number of people have come to the United States to work and send money back home. They don’t make much money, but they pay considerable fees on their transfers. Their focus is not on getting rich, but on supporting those back home in their native country. They support their families as they do hard labor day in and day out. It costs them too much to do so. Truth be told, my father was a migrant worker. He picked fruit in the fields. We sent money back to …

Ever since its inception and throughout its turbulent journey toward mainstream acceptance, crypto has elicited both enthusiasm and trepidation in equal measure. After the unfair battering it has received over the years, the time has come to defend digital currencies. Unfortunately for crypto, first impressions count. Bitcoin (BTC) initially gained a tawdry reputation in its early years as the currency of choice for illicit activities — favored by dark web users, ransomware hackers, drug traffickers and money launderers worldwide. But, the world has changed since the first Bitcoin was mined in January 2009. There are now more than 18 million …

Crypto’s reputation as a boys’ club does not come as a surprise: It sits at the very intersection of tech and finance, perpetuating the legacy of “bro culture” that is coded into Silicon Valley and Wall Street. It was only in 2020 when Citigroup bank appointed the company’s first female CEO, Jane Fraser. This was a milestone in its 200-year long history and in the history of Wall Street itself, having the first woman lead one of the largest Wall Street banks. Meanwhile, cases of sexual harassment run rampant across pioneering tech firms, as seen in the case of Riot …

This holiday season, fintech provider Unbanked will be enabling crypto donations for Toys for Tots, a program run by the United States Marine Corps that collects toys to distribute to disadvantaged children. In a Dec. 2 announcement, Unbanked said it would be allowing users to donate cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) as part of a fundraising effort for Toys for Tots. Until Dec. 20, good Samaritans can send any amount of money towards the program which has given 604 million toys to 272 million children across the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. We are …

Crypto has seen a rise in novel uses of liquidity mining and rewards through protocols like Uniswap, Aave and Compound. More recently, a new crop of DeFi 2.0 protocols such as OlympusDAO, Alchemix and Abracadabra are exploring new ways of operating without giving up token rewards. For all the innovations happening with decentralized systems in crypto, they are still failing to open new pathways for economic prosperity for the most marginalized. In its current form, DeFi remains open only to people who already have access to the financial system and live in countries with strong financial markets. This is evident …