Millions of dollars worth of China’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) has been handed out across the country over the Lunar New Year period in a bid to boost its takeup. According to a Feb. 6 report in the Global Times, an English-language outlet of the state-ran People’s Daily newspaper, around 200 “activities” for the e-CNY were launched across the country during the holiday period. These "activities" were made to “promote consumption” — the first of such since the government recently relaxed COVID-19 restrictions. Multiple cities reportedly gave away over $26.5 million, or 180 million yuan worth of the CBDC …

Payment company Visa is seeking to build a "muscle memory" to settlements, aiming to allow customers to convert digital assets to fiat currencies on its platform, according to the company's head of crypto division Cuy Sheffield at the StarkWare Sessions 2023. "We've been testing how to actually accept settlement payments from issuers in USDC starting on Ethereum and paying out in USDC (USDC) on Ethereum. So, these are large value settlement payments.", noted Sheffield in a fireside chat at the event. Cointelegraph's team is on the ground in Tel-Aviv covering the two-day Ethereum community conference. According to the executive, global …

When the financial system or the economy as a whole undergoes a rapid and large decline, it is said to be in a financial crisis. Financial assets like stocks, bonds, and real estate often see a sharp and significant decline in value during financial crises. They can also be identified by a decline in credit availability and a loss of faith in financial institutions like banks. Related: DeFi vs. CeFi: Comparing decentralized to centralized finance Financial crises can be caused by a variety of factors, including: Overleveraging: When people, businesses, and governments take on excessive debt, they put themselves at …

Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution StarkWare announced plans to open source its proprietary Starknet Prover under the Apache 2.0 license, which has processed 327 million transactions and minted 95 million nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to date. The prover is the crucial engine Starkware uses to roll up hundreds of thousands of transactions and compress them into a tiny cryptographic proof written on the Ethereum blockchain. “We think of the Prover as the magic wand of Stark technology. It wondrously generates the proofs that allow unimaginable scaling,” said Eli Ben-Sasson, president and co-founder of Starkware. Starkware has faced criticism from the crypto …

Over the last 14 years, investors got attracted to Bitcoin (BTC) for many reasons— from fixing a flawed fiat economy and reaching the unbanked to diversifying portfolios. However, a large portion of the general public sees Bitcoin as a gateway to financial freedom amid growing fiat inflation and geopolitical uncertainties. Traditional banking systems have, time and again, served as a tool for centralized governments to dictate financial access, especially during dire situations. Most recently, the Ukraine-Russian war served as a case study for how cryptocurrencies helped the displaced and the unbanked access funds for basic necessities. As intended by the …

Along with pro-crypto regulations, mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies requires a supporting infrastructure that can allow the general public access and exposure to the ecosystem. When considering eight key indicators around taxes, ATMs, jobs and events in crypto, London stands at the top as the most crypto-ready city in the world for businesses and start-ups. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s vision to “ensure the UK financial services industry is always at the forefront of technology and innovation” is on the right path, reveals research conducted by Recap. An examination of eight key data points determined London to sport the highest crypto-readiness …

Google Cloud has reportedly invested $300 million into artificial intelligence (AI) startup firm Anthropic, which also happened to receive over $500 million in funds from former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried about six months before FTX catastrophically collapsed. While the $300 million figure was reported by Financial Times on Feb. 4, Anthropic confirmed the investment partnership with Google Cloud on the same day despite not disclosing any figures: We're excited to use Google Cloud to train our AI systems, including Claude! https://t.co/IaqQ5lpJrP https://t.co/vOn5Cj4sPt — Anthropic (@AnthropicAI) February 3, 2023 In the same announcement, Anthropic also confirmed that they previously raised capital …

The Bank of England (BoE) and Treasury believes the United Kingdom is likely to need to create a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by 2030, according to a Telegraph report on Feb. 4. The "digital pound" roadmap is set to be introduced next week, a government source told the newspaper. Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe is scheduled to give an update on the BoE's work on the CDBC on Feb. 7 "On the basis of our work to date, the Bank of England and HM Treasury judge that it is likely a digital pound will be needed in the future," noted …

For computer programs and mobile applications, programmers must develop code. In order to keep things working properly, they are also involved in maintaining, debugging and troubleshooting software and systems. Here is a brief overview of the top 10 most famous computer programmers of all time. Alan Turing Alan Turing was a British mathematician and computer scientist who contributed significantly to the growth of artificial intelligence, cryptography and computer science. He helped decipher the Enigma code during World War II and introduced the idea of the Turing Machine, a theoretical representation of a computer. Turing also contributed to the creation of …

On a recent visit to Sri Lanka, American billionaire Tim Draper pitched the idea of adopting Bitcoin (BTC) as a legal tender to fight against the corruption that contributed to hyperinflation in the island country. However, a key Sri Lankan authority — central bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe — believed doing so would worsen the country’s economic situation. Taking time from a TV shoot in Sri Lanka, Draper met President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Weerasinghe to recommend Bitcoin as a viable option for getting out of financial problems. During the meeting, Draper pointed out a key concern staring right at Sri Lanka: …

The National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) has launched a digital tenge pilot project, according to a report published jointly by the bank and Binance on Feb. 3. The report looked at global approaches to digital asset regulation, the digital asset industry and decentralized finance (DeFi) in Central Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent States in particular. In his introduction to the report, NBK Deputy governor Berik Sholpankupov wrote about the bank’s vision of a “collaboration between Traditional Finance and DeFi” that could increase financial inclusion and support international trade. He added: “In Kazakhstan, we also started a practical R&D project …

Bitcoin experienced the second-strongest January in its history — and the best since 2013 — rising nearly 40% amid wide reports that institutional investors were back on board. Zhong Yang Chan, head of research at CoinGecko, told Cointelegraph that there were “net institutional inflows into digital asset funds in January 2023, particularly in the last two weeks, with Bitcoin the largest beneficiary.” Meanwhile, a Jan. 30 CoinShares blog noted that the total assets under management in digital asset investment products — a good gauge of institutional participation — had risen to $28 billion, led by Bitcoin (BTC), which was up …