Boston Fed Testing 30+ Blockchains: The Central Bank Digital Currency Roundup
Plus a new high for the 'Bitcoin Rich List'
Happy Monday, Blockfolians
The Lede
One of the big trends of the last two years has been the rapid push of central banks towards launching their own digital currencies. For some reason, the last few days have seen an absolute flurry of news in that area as well.
The Bahamas put their digital currency on their official balance sheet
The Ukraine shared lessons from a digital currency pilot
The People’s Bank of China shared more details about the size of pilot transactions
Brazil has tasked a research group with creating a CBDC roadmap
The Boston Fed is reviewing more than 30 blockchains for digital dollar experiments
The sheer volume of different bits of news around this topic shows just how much activity there is in this space.
This comes with mixed implications for all of us in crypto. On the one hand, CBDC’s are effectively surveillance money. They will give states unprecedented insight into their citizens’ finances.
On the other, there is no denying how much activity around CBDCs is a harbinger for the larger shift to digital currencies. Even in a world where base money is also truly digital, you have to imagine that many will opt out for private, non-state alternatives.
It’s a brave new world out there, friends.
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Highly Relevant Reading
Another company has moved its cash reserves to bitcoin
Ether’s volatility compared to bitcoin hits a 6 month high
Aave has been granted an Electronic Money Institution license by UK financial authority
Bitmain locks up $17.7m deal with Riot Blockchain
Community Commentary
Everyone is talking about this new piece by Nic Carter — deservedly so
Meanwhile, if you’re a BitMEX user, we hope you’re not in Ontario
A Really Big Number We Should Be Paying Attention To
2,190
That’s the number of bitcoin addresses holding over 1000 BTC - the highest this ‘Bitcoin Rich List’ number has ever been
Final Thought
Literally no matter what he’s talking about, since this is 2020, we agree.