The World Economic Forum’s upcoming Davos Agenda will feature two separate sessions on cryptocurrency, offering another compelling sign that digital assets have permeated mainstream consciousness. The sessions, titled Resetting Digital Currencies, will be held on Monday and Thursday. The first session will feature five public speakers, including Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and Hikmet Ersek, president and CEO of Western Union. Thursday’s group features four speakers, including Tharman Shanmugaratnam, a senior minister for the government of Singapore, and Zhu Min, chairman of the Beijing-based National Institute of Financial Research. “COVID-19 has accelerated the long-term shift from cash,” reads the …

Blockchain for supply chain management is one of the most practical business applications for large, multi-party sectors seeking trust and transparency across daily operations. As such, the mining and metals sector has now started to leverage blockchain technology to effectively track carbon emissions across complex, global supply chains. This month, the World Economic Forum launched a proof-of-concept to trace carbon emissions across the supply chains of seven mining and metals firms. Known as the Mining and Metals Blockchain Initiative, or MMBI, this is a collaboration between the WEF and industry companies including Anglo American, Antofagasta Minerals, Eurasian Resources Group, Glencore, …

It is hard to imagine that just two years ago, the general discourse around central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, was mainly focused on the potential and possibility of issuing them. Even in 2019, the question was about whether we need state-owned cryptocurrencies, with only 70% of central banks worldwide studying the potential of issuing a CBDC, according to a survey published by the Bank for International Settlements at the beginning of 2019. But this year, everything is indeed different. 2020 started with a major event within the financial world: the World Economic Forum in Davos, where the WEF released …

The World Economic Forum’s cryptocurrency working group published its inaugural review on Thursday — its first step in communicating the application of digital assets in finance and beyond. In a 38-page report, the Forum’s Global Future Council on Cryptocurrencies highlights the various use cases of digital assets “beyond price and speculation.” The foreword, written by CoinShares’ Meltem Demirors and Visa’s head of crypto Cuy Sheffield, states: “The Council has [...] created this booklet to highlight a non-exhaustive list of companies, protocols and projects that represent the diversity of use cases that cryptocurrencies and the networks which they power can enable.” …

The World Economic Forum is progressing with its blockchain-based project tracking of greenhouse gas emissions. According to a Dec. 15 announcement, the WEF’s Mining and Metals Blockchain Initiative, or MMBI, has released a proof-of-concept to trace carbon emissions for mining and metals firms. The initiative is a collaboration between the WEF and seven industry companies: Anglo American, Antofagasta Minerals, Eurasian Resources Group, Glencore, Klöckner & Co, Minsur, and Tata Steel. The project was initially announced in October 2019, aiming to build responsible sourcing and sustainability practices using blockchain. The initiative aims to accelerate an industry solution for supply chain visibility …

Blockchain technology in general, and smart contracts in particular, can “unlock the hidden values of legacy digital systems,” according to a report co-authored by representatives of the World Economic Forum and Chainlink. To understand how, look no further than India’s Crop Insurance Scheme. In a 40-page white paper released on Wednesday, the Geneva-based organization promotes the importance of interoperability between legacy systems and distributed ledger technologies – but only for specific use cases that are suitable for blockchains. “Once readers have already established that blockchain is desirable for their specific use case and business processes, this paper aims to spotlight …

Bitcoin continues its bull run. The coin is up more than 12 percent over the last week and is now tickling $16,000. According to the Big Mac Index, a Bitcoin will now buy as many as 6,3421.26 of the giant burgers. It’s even passed the monetary base of the Russian ruble, and is on its way towards beating Canada. That will happen when Bitcoin is worth $18,000. It’s almost there. The coin already has a market cap bigger than that of Bank of America, Netflix, and Shopify. If it keeps rising, it will soon be in the top 20 assets …

The World Economic Forum, or WEF, believes that blockchain represents a core element of sustainable digital finance — a new paradigm that combines emerging technology with environmentally conscious business models. In a new report published Wednesday, UBS executive Karin Oertli lists blockchain technology along with artificial intelligence, mobile platforms and the Internet of Things as being the cornerstones of digital finance. These technologies, when combined with environmental, social and governance frameworks, could help governments and corporations reach their lofty sustainable development goals. Oertli writes: “We believe that sustainable digital finance will play an essential role in efficiently channeling this capital …

When the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, were conceived back in 2012, blockchain technology was in its early days. Few could have foreseen the trajectory and the potential of blockchain for advancing these ambitious targets. But today, we see opportunities for blockchain technology to recast conventional approaches to sustainable development — and accelerate progress if deployed responsibly. Macro trends of 2020 There are a number of macro trends this year in the world of blockchain and sustainable development that provide context. This has been — and will continue to be — an important year for laying the groundwork for major …

We aren’t taught real economics in school. We learn, instead, voodoo economics. For example, rarely — if ever — do professors present us with the valuable insights highlighted by the Austrian school of economics. Individuals, therefore, need to break their conditioning to understand how the financial world works. The truth of how the financial system was built, how it works, who controls it, and so on is a whole new world to them. If you really dig into the truth and start to see how it all works, you might make certain connections, such as why Jesus expelled the money …

A global pandemic, massive and worldwide protests, job automation, environmental issues and geopolitical tensions are just a few of the challenges facing humanity today. Amid the chaos, keystone global institutions and bureaucrats have openly discussed the present day as an opportunity to remake the world. “The Great Reset,” as the plan has been called, represents a radical initiative by world leaders — many of whom are unelected — to transform the global economy. The World Economic Forum, for instance, claims there is an “urgent need” for “global stakeholders” to manage the direct consequences of what the International Monetary Fund has …

When we talk about financial inclusion, we have to think about inclusion for whom, in what context, and what inclusion itself means. One of the common answers when thinking about who needs to be “financially included” is “most currently unbanked people, who should ideally have access to commercial banking systems.” But it’s not as simple as just asking, “How do we get unbanked people into the banking system?” because the banking system can be exploitative, and newly banked customers often wind up being the least-important customers or paying the highest fees, among other issues. There are significant limitations on the …