The whirlwinds that the adoption of central banks digital currencies have left behind the crypto and blockchain industries continue to revolutionize the sector, as more countries state every day that they are, at the very least, entertaining the idea of issuing a digital currency. Some of them are actually in advanced stages.

The newest country to join the fever is Ghana, located in the heart of Africa. The nation is reportedly looking at the idea of launching and using a central bank digital currency to enjoy the many benefits associated with it.

The governor of Ghana’s central bank Ernest Addison stated in the last few hours that the nation, located at the West part of the continent, could issue a digital version of its fiat currency, the cedi, in the not so distant future. In fact, Ghana is currently in conversations to come up with a pilot project in a “sandbox environment.”

Times of Change

Addison offered his thoughts about the matter at Ghana’s Annual Banking Conference, through a public transcript. The governor stated that the African nation-state is currently undergoing times of change.

He said that Ghana is quickly evolving and is experiencing what is called “digitization,” fueled by a prominent mobile banking industry that is powered by mobile phones. In fact, reports state that “mobile money” transactions experienced a 70 percent increase from 2017 to 2018, and the 2018 to 2019 period has seen more growth, as well.

In an effort to inject life to the aforementioned field, Addison stated that he gave the green light to the organization he leads to issue mobile money backed 1:1 by cedi and held in electronic wallets at the start of the week, one day before he announced to the world the idea of creating a CBDC.

“In its issuance of electronic money, GCB Bank would create electronic value backed by equivalent cash which will afford customers to have access to electronic wallets issued by GCB Bank (Ghana). The GCB Bank plans to leverage on its 189 branch network to offer its own agency banking services,” he explained.

Not Precisely Crypto

Yet, he observed that the mobile money would differ from traditional cryptos, per a report from local news platform MyJoyOnline. “It is just electronic money backed by currency,” he said at the press conference. “So [the central bank] cannot create money; they are only having an electronic representation of the cedi that the Bank of Ghana puts into circulation. So it is not crypto.”

It is not yet known which technology will be behind the “e-cedi” digital currency proposed by the executive. Not too many details about it have come to daylight, but Ghana appears to be on the right track as they look for modernization and digitization.

“The future of financial services is digitization. But, it raises some key strategic issues for the banking industry including how each institution can leverage digital financial services technologies for growth; whether through competition, co-opetition or partnerships. Despite these, the opportunities of digitizing financial services are enormous and can be explored effectively to scale up financial access for Ghana’s economic transformation agenda,” he said.

By Andres Chavez

BitBay, a European cryptocurrency exchange, announced this week that it is delisting Monero (XMR,) a privacy-centric crypto asset, because of ongoing concerns that are related to money laundering activities.

The crypto exchange platform announced its decision in recent days and said that the delisting will become official by February 19, 2020. BitBay made sure to explain its decision to its customer base through a statement published on its official website.

Fighting Against Money Laundering

“Monero (XMR) can selectively utilize anonymity features among projects. This feature of XMR is subject to the end of transaction support. The decision was made to block the possibility of money laundering and inflow from external networks,” according to the document published by the exchange itself.

In fact, BitBay will accept XMR deposits until November 29, and because of the upcoming Monero blockchain fork, the withdrawals won’t be processed from that date until December 5, 2019. Overall trading support for the crypto asset will finalize on February 19, 2020. After that date, the exchange will cancel all buy and sell orders.

Also, the exchange officials asked their customers and holders of the privacy-driven asset to take out their XMR by May 20, 2020. After that date, any activity regarding XMR in the BitBay exchange will no longer exist.

Inside the Top 100 of Crypto Exchanges

BitBay has its headquarters in Poland, and according to information provided by Coin360, it is the 90th-largest cryptocurrency exchange by 24-hour trade volume. At the moment of writing this piece, it had a daily trading volume of more than $20.7 million.

The exchange itself observed that, as a regulated platform, it has to make sure to follow certain market standards and rules when it comes to offering protection to its clientele, as well as reporting practices. As a result, it said that it isn’t the only exchange that has elected to delist Monero and other privacy-focused digital assets.

“Monero (and other cryptocurrencies with this specification) has been already delisted on other fiat-crypto exchanges for the same reason. As a licensed exchange, BitBay has to follow the market standards. Compliance with market standards and regulations allows us to provide our clients with legal security and convenience of using the exchange, with the participation of a friendly banking system and the availability of payment operators,” it stated.

Following Other Exchanges’ Steps

For instance, back in September, another prominent exchange, OKEx, proceeded to delist several privacy-oriented tokens. Among those were Monero, Dash (DASH), Zcash (ZEC), Horizen (ZEN) and Super Bitcoin (SBTC). According to the exchange, they fell out of favor with new guidelines set out by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF.)

The reality is that the overall crypto industry landscape isn’t favorable towards coins that concentrate on privacy, such as Monero. A perfect example of that is the concern expressed by the German Federal Ministry of Finance, regarding the increased use of privacy tokens and their possible links with criminal activities.

By Andres Chavez

The amount of money that people involved in crypto scams and other irregularities have to pay as penalties to regulators and watchdogs is increasing year after year. After justice has been done, these institutions obtain money for their enforcement actions, which is a positive development in a society that is still fighting against crypto-related crimes.

In this particular case, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) obtained more than $1.3 billion as a result of administrative penalties in the fiscal year 2019. The number includes funds collected from cryptocurrency operators and other entities or organizations.

Monetary Relief for the Financial Regulator

The information can be found on the CFTC’s yearly report for 2019. According to the document, the watchdog got funds thanks to the enforcement of the law. Among the monetary relief forms were civil penalties, restitution, and disgorgement.

The exact amount of the monetary relief received by the CFTC was $1,321,046,710, which would be an increment of 39% over 2018, the previous fiscal year. The precise number of regulatory penalties imparted by the institution wasn’t specified in the mentioned report.

The report outlines a number of charges involving fraud with Bitcoin (BTC.) The world’s premier cryptocurrency was one of the preferred means used by scammers and cybercriminals to defraud people.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission emphasized the Control-Finance Ltd crypto scheme of $147 million, famous for defrauding over a thousand investors worldwide. Roughly 22,858 BTC were laundered.

Another famous case was the one against Jon Barry Thompson, which was a civil case. The man was accused of defrauding investors with $7 million worth of Bitcoin. Joseph King was also accused of illicit proceedings whilst gaining possession of considerable amounts of Bitcoin and Litecoin (LTC.) His fine was worth $1.1 million.

“The Division successfully litigated the cases involving digital assets it had previously charged, obtaining, among other things, rulings affirming the Commission’s authority to prosecute fraud and manipulation involving digital assets that satisfy the statutory definition of a commodity,” per information found on the report.

69 Enforcement Actions in Total

In total, the institution filed 69 enforcement actions, a slightly higher number than the five-year average of 67.5.

A few weeks ago, the new chairman of the CFTC Heath Tarbert expressed the need for the institution to take a “principles-based regulation” approach for cryptocurrencies. He stated that by doing that, it would mean that the organization would move away from detailed rules and would depend on high-level and “broadly-stated principles” as they define the standards for regulated firms and products.

Late last month, the CFTC gave LabCFTC, its associated fintech research arm, status as an independent operating department. After the “promotion,” the fintech branch began to report directly to Tarbert, who announced at the time that “blockchain, digital assets, and other developments hold great promise for our economy. Now is the time for LabCFTC to play an even greater role as we work to develop and write the rules for these transformative new products.”

By Andres Chavez

Bitfinex, one of the planet’s most widely known cryptocurrency exchanges, was emphatic in its response to what it called a “mercenary and baseless class action complaint” lodged in Washington State, in the United States. Not only that, but the platform also threatened to retaliate.

The comments were provided by the exchange in its official website, in the “Announcements” section. The issue at hand is a “copycat” lawsuit (that’s how the exchange refered to it) that was originated at a Washington district court a few days ago.

It is the second suit of its kind against Bitfinex, although the nature of the legal proceeding wasn’t published or specified. Bitfinex is administrated by iFinex, which is the same firm that runs the Tether stablecoin. Both companies have been on the news for months for different reasons.

Linked to a Recent Research

However, reports from the United States seem to indicate that the latest legal advance against the exchange is likely linked to recent research published by two academic writers, claiming that Tether was used to perform Bitcoin price manipulation on the Bitfinex ecosystem in 2017, a series of events that resulted in a surge.

“On November 22, without notice to us, a class action complaint was filed against Bitfinex and Tether in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. This copycat lawsuit suffers from the same multitude of deficiencies as the unsound complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on October 6. The Plaintiffs’ claims here are similarly without merit, and Bitfinex strongly contests the bogus research purporting to support them,” the document says.

In the document, the controversial exchange says that “mercenary lawyers continue to try to use Bitfinex and Tether to obtain a payday.” It certainly seems that, at least judging by the emphatic tone of the statement, Bitfinex is trying to keep other people with intentions of suing at bay.

“There will be no nuisance settlements or settlements of any kind reached. Instead, all claims raised across both actions will be vigorously contested and ultimately disposed of in due course. Once they are, Bitfinex and Tether will fully evaluate their legal options against those bringing and promoting the baseless claims,” the statement read.

A Tough Autumn

The fall has been rough for Bitfinex and its community of users. Accusations of this kind do no good when it comes to the exchange’s reputation and taking into account its troubled past. Also, a similar legal suit was issued against it in October.

If that wasn’t enough, the parent company iFinex has also been under heavy scrutiny in recent times because of a long legal battle with the New York Attorney General, which earlier in  2019 made significant accusations towards the exchange about mismanaging people’s funds at some point.

“Bitfinex and its affiliates have never used Tether tokens or issuances to manipulate the cryptocurrency market or token pricing. All Tether tokens are fully backed by reserves and are issued and traded on Bitfinex according to market demand, and not to control the pricing of crypto assets. It is irresponsible to suggest that Tether or Bitfinex enable illicit activity due to the efficiency, liquidity and wide-scale applicability of Tether’s products within the cryptocurrency economy,” according to the text.

By Andres Chavez

The blockchain technology keeps gaining adepts worldwide, as three national units of the world’s most recognized humanitarian organization in the medical area, the Red Cross, are currently taking advantage of the distributed ledger in an attempt to stimulate local economies, per a report from the Thomas Reuters Foundation in recent days.

The three Red Cross units are currently backing a currency system based on the blockchain technology not only to boost local economies but also to enhance aid delivery to locations that may need it.

The development will have a direct impact in the Red Cross societies of Kenya, Norway, and Denmark, as they all have launched a two-year project to implement blockchain-backed local currencies, as they call it, instead of cash and voucher provision in aid and development resources and efforts.

Roughly $1 Billion per Year in Cash and Vouchers

The report explains that the organization, as of now, is currently distributing roughly $1 billion per year as cash and vouchers, and they are mainly dedicated to disaster relief or to boost economies depending on the location.

However, with the new blockchain approach in place (test have already been conducted in specific locations in Kenya and Ethiopia) has already managed sizable improvements in trade in unfavored communities, as they let local people earn credits created from work, sales, or aid injections. Subsequently, they can spend these assets through a mobile app, and the blockchain system will be there to record every transaction in the immutable ledger.

One person familiar with the situation, a Danish Red Cross staffer, told Reuters that the newly implemented project is somewhat similar to M-Pesa mobile money transfer performed in Kenya. However, one difference between the two is that the one implemented by the Red Cross doesn’t require users to have fiat funds.

Several Locations

If the plan goes smoothly, the people behind the project will expand it across Kenya and other African nations in the future, such as Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Cameroon. Asian countries such as Myanmar and Papua New Guinea could also participate. The goal is to onboard 320,000 new users in the next two years.

Paula Gil, a Geneva-based humanitarian consultant, stated that technology has the potential to bring about a revolution in aid delivery. “This is the future,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, and added that “probably the only true use of blockchain for good”.

On top of all, the new project is said to be very affordable when it comes to costs. According to Grassroots Economics founder Will Ruddick, approximately $40,000 per year is needed for servers and support across Kenya, besides the original $1 million in start-up funding from Norway and other contributors.

Will Ruddick, the founder of Grassroots Economics (an organization aiming to develop community currencies such as the one for the Red Cross project) observed that the blockchain-backed exchange systems have the potential to reshape the way spending for development and resilience-building was viewed at a worldwide scale.

He emphasizes that the scheme “lets 25 women with (simple) feature phones create their own credit and savings pool using totally automated systems.”

By Andres Chavez

The blockchain technology is once again proving to be very useful for official affairs. The most recent example is coming from Asian lands, more specifically, from Thailand, as the Excise Department in Thailand is reportedly going to come up with a new way of refunding overpaid taxes to oil exporters with the help of the world-changing technology.

It was revealed in recent days that the Thailand Excise Department will make modifications to the currently functioning tax refund policy and will start to employ a blockchain-based tax payback system. The idea is to start implementing the new practice in the middle of next year.

Requirements for Oil Exporters

The information was revealed this week by the director-general Patchara Anuntasilpa, and he offered his remarks to local publication the Bangkok Post. The authority observed that the soon to be implemented tax payback blockchain system will require those that export oil to pay excise tax and claim overpaid taxes once they ship the fuel.

He also explained that thanks to the blockchain technology, the whole process will be more efficient and transparent, allowing the department to inspect the tax payments more smoothly.

Right now, the oil and fuel exporters have to submit lots of documents and paperwork to earn a tax waiver, not to mention that the process of inspecting isn’t thorough and could use a sizable improvement, per Patchara.

Smoothening the Process

Patchara observed that the whole tax refund process will be shorter if the oil exporters can file the respective documents smoothly and correctly. Regarding the platform in which the proposed approach will run, the department is saying that it is currently in conversations with Krungthai Bank (KTB) to help it set up the blockchain-based refund ecosystem.

According to sources familiar with the oil industry in the country, the excise tax exception for oil-related exports is approximately 6 million baht per year. With the new system in place, the expectation is that the costs to operators could potentially increase if the process to collect tax refunds takes time.

A More Efficient, Faster System

Those exporting oil want the department to come up with a system that can process tax efficiently, according to the mentioned source, which preferred to talk with the condition to remain anonymous.

Another source, currently under employment at the department, specified that the proposed modification in the tax payback policy will let the organization perform better and smoother inspections of tax payments, as well as prevent operators from smuggling the exported oil for selling it locally and enjoy the tax waiver at the same time.

It looks like an official announcement on the collaboration between the KTB and the Excise Department in Thailand is just around the corner, as the latter will feed from the former’s blockchain technology and upgrade services on the digital platform. Besides the use of the distributed ledger technology for exported oil tax refunds, there are two additional pilot projects: e-bank guarantees and annual fee payment for liqueur, tobacco, and playing card distribution licenses.

By Andres Chavez