The Minister of Industry, Mines, and Trade thinks the Iranian government should not overlook the opportunities offered by the crypto industry. The authorities stop cryptocurrency mining operations every winter, arguing that this activity causes numerous power outages that affect heating systems.

The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and the Ministry of Commerce recently agreed to link the payment platform of the financial institution to a trading system. In that way, Iranian companies may make and receive payments using cryptocurrencies, the Mehr News Agency reported.

Alireza Peyman-Pak is Minister of Industry, Mines, and Trade of Iran and Director of the Iran Trade Promotion Organization (TPO). He announced that the new payment mechanism would start operating within two weeks.

Payman-Pak said it should provide new opportunities for importers and exporters to use cryptocurrencies in their international agreements. He also stressed that the Iranian government should not overlook the economic and commercial possibilities of the crypto industry. Of course, he was referring to decentralized crypto assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

The minister expressed that all Iranian economic actors might use those cryptocurrencies in their international deals. For example, he said they might use the ruble, rupee, US dollar, or euro to acquire cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

The official explained that Iranian traders might pass the crypto asset to sellers or importers as a form of credit. He stated that the cryptocurrency market builds on that feature, for which their economic actors may use it quickly and widely.

Uncertainty has plagued the cryptocurrency industry in Iran since the leading blockchain organization raised concerns about some regulatory rules. Besides, the government has also been implementing regulated power outages to local Bitcoin miners, which affects the hash rate of that business.

Although Bitcoin Mining is Legal in Iran, It Hangs by a Thread

The Central Bank of Iran authorized the operation of Bitcoin mining farms in the country. However, the success of that industry seems destined to depend on the seasons of the year.

At the moment, the authorities stop the operations of cryptocurrency mining farms when the winter arrives. The Iranian government has stated that this activity causes numerous power outages, negatively affecting the heating systems of the country.

The same happened in May 2021, during the summer, when they restricted the operations of Bitcoin mining farms. They argued that electrical energy consumption increases the use of air conditioning due to the high temperatures in the territory.

The governments of other countries like Kosovo and Argentina have also blamed cryptocurrency mining for power outages. The authorities attribute the energy problems to that activity rather than the lack of investment in the electricity sector.

Concerning the authorities of Kosovo, they recently said that they cut the electricity supply to save energy for the population. They believe that the high energy consumption by cryptocurrency mining equipment could affect other sectors.

In Argentina, the government stated that cryptocurrency mining overloads and overheats the electricity networks amid a heatwave. They want to apply higher costs to the rates for farms doing the activity but would exempt users mining from home.

By Alexander Salazar

Athletes and foreign visitors would have access to the application or physical card to use e-CNY. Foreign currencies can also get converted into e-CNY through ATMs.

China’s government will, for the first time ever, allow foreign nationals to use its central bank digital currency (CBDC), known as the digital yuan, or e-CNY. Bloomberg reported on January 11 that Athletes and visitors present in Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics would use the currency before the event takes place.

According to the report, the People’s Bank of China (BPC) intends to test how receptive foreigners are to the digital yuan.

The measure comes after countries such as the US, Japan, Australia, Great Britain, and Canada announced that Government representatives would not go to the sporting event as part of their delegations. These countries affirmed that the diplomatic boycott responds to the violations of rights in the Asian nation.

The report notes that “China would be looking to use games to show the influence of the digital yuan globally.” The Chinese issuing entity intended that the winter Olympics become the perfect scenario to encourage the massive use of its official digital currency.

 The Exclusive Use of e-CNY

Chinese government spokespersons have expressed the intention to test if their digital currency can compete with the US dollar as an international unit of account. This goal would justify measures like the outlawing of activities related to Bitcoin, which would force the exclusive use of e-CNY as a digital currency, at least in Chinese territory.

In these weeks before the Winter Olympic Games, scheduled for February 4 to 20, non-residents will be able to choose between downloading an application or purchasing a physical card to manage digital yuan. In addition, the foreigners will have the option of using ATMs activated to exchange foreign currency for ee-CNY.

Likewise, athletes and coaches will obtain a bracelet that works as a cold wallet, which can get slipped at points of sale to make payments. In the Olympic village, only Visa cards, digital yuan, and Chinese physical currency, known within the country as the renminbi, will serve as a legal method of payment.

Although the BPC recently closed an alliance with WeChat Pay, one of the digital payment platforms most used by the Chinese, the application will not serve for use in sports facilities. Neither does Alipay, another popular digital payment medium in China, actively operating with e-CNY since last May.

China has been working on its official digital currency since 2014. Last year the BPC carried out multiple trials to test the digital yuan in different areas within the country. By the end of 2021, about 10% of the population is already using the Chinese government’s CBDC.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The IMF expressed that the cryptocurrency market reached at least $ 3 trillion in 2021. According to IMF, there is an obvious nexus between cryptocurrencies and financial markets.

The International Monetary Fund revealed on Monday, January 11, an article in its blog in which it acknowledged that the market for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is no longer at the edges of the fields of the world financial system, and highlights that their value went from USD 620 million in 2017 to at least USD 3 trillion in November 2021.

The article argues that, although the decline in the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies brought the total value of that market to around $ 2 trillion, it still cost four times its value in 2017.

Amid this age of adoption of cryptocurrencies, their correlation with traditional assets such as stocks has increased significantly, limiting the benefits of their perceived risk diversification and raising the risk of contagion in the financial market, notes the document.

Bitcoin and Stocks Show Parallelisms

The following graph shows on the left side how the Standard & Poor index and the price of bitcoin show increasingly similar trends. On the other hand, the correlation between bitcoin and S&P 500 registered a minimum of at least -0.4 in mid-2019. In March 2020, this correlation achieved an unprecedented maximum.

A report highlighted by various media outlets on Tuesday 11, stated that the correlation between bitcoin and S&P 500 had reached its highest level since July 2020 last week. In the previous two months, the correlations of bitcoin with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices reached a high peak from 0.2 to 0.6, representing an increase of more than 200%.

The IMF expressed that a growing correlation between bitcoin and traditional assets could lead investors to shift from one asset class to the other.

The document highlights that the bitcoin volatility might have caused one-sixth of the volatility of the S&P during the pandemic. It also caused volatility in one-tenth of the returns of the S&P 500,” the IMF states. In addition, a sharp drop in bitcoin could create greater fear of risk and lead to a fall in investment in the stock market.

The monetary entity firmly insists on the need for a global entity to regulate cryptocurrencies. It also points out that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are no longer on the edges of the financial system.

He adds that growing co-movements can represent risks for the financial system and that a coordinated and global regulatory effort is required to guide national efforts in this regard. Last December, three IMF representatives launched the convenience of a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies worldwide.

By: Jenson Nuñez

Bitcoin updates are of no interest to Coinbase. Most bitcoin exchanges did not adopt Taproot. The US exchange Coinbase rejects Taproot, the latest Bitcoin update, and puts it away from its top priorities.

According to reports revealed by Murchandamus, Chaincodlabs engineer, Coinbase does not have within its priorities to activate withdrawals and deposits to addresses bech32m, the new Bitcoin address format applied in November 2021 with Taproot, an update that focuses its efforts on improving privacy and efficiency of the transactions carried out in this protocol.

Among other vital contributions to the Bitcoin environment, Murchandamus grouped into a list the exchanges and services that have already adopted Taproot and other implementations. No sign mentions the acceptance of Coinbase to Taproot in the Bech32m and P2TR address formats.

Coinbase also showed its rejection to SegWit (P2WPKH / P2WSH), considering that SegWit is already four years old in Bitcoin and its adoption levels in the industry are at all-time highs.

Notably, on the website, it appears that Binance does not accept Taproot, even considering that, in an announcement revealed in November, they had stated that it does.

Binance’s ranking on the Murchandamus list suddenly changed after a user lost their funds when withdrawing from Binance to a Taproot profile, sparking controversies that ended when the exchange publicly acknowledged their mistake and refunded the funds.

Taproot Node Adoption Has Slight Growth 

During December 2021, the account of Bitcoin nodes that accept Taproot experienced an increase of approximately 10%, which is an improvement over the previous months that includes its activation (November).

At least 62% of the nodes that work within the Bitcoin network accept Taproot, allowing users to transfer bitcoins from their wallets with this method. This event equals more than 19,000 nodes that already work within the Bitcoin Core 22.0 software, which Taproot brought as an update to the protocol.

On the other hand, the nodes that do not desire to accept a root and work with previous versions of Bitcoin Core would be declining soon, according to data from developer Luke Dash Jr. The adoption of Taproot has been quite fast regarding the number of nodes but not regarding transactions that spend bitcoins according to this format.

However, the inputs and outputs have increased steadily since November. This situation means that more users already have coins completely ready to spend with this format.

The opposite took effect with SegWit, which though many exchanges and services were slow to adopt the network. By August 2021, 80% of Bitcoin transactions got carried out with this implementation.  According to the Transactionfee.info portal, this amount has remained the same from then until these days.

In any case, specialists expressed their hopes regarding Taproot since it would allow better handling of wallet signatures. The taproot will also offer benefits regarding privacy, and it could enable interesting tools like leaving bitcoin inheritances.

By: Jenson Nuñez

Employees of the cryptocurrency exchange will take four recharge weeks in addition to their formal vacation. The measure seeks to balance the intense rhythm of work.

Coinbase, the leading digital currency exchange in the United States, is introducing a new model of annual rest for its employees to balance its work environment. Media The Block reviewed first.

Coinbase Director of Personnel L. J. Brock released a blog post that addresses what it is like to work for one of the most prominent cryptocurrency exchanges.

The executive admitted that the company has an intense work culture that frequently pushes its employees out of their comfort zones. As a result, working hours can extend from 40 hours a week and may not run parallel with standard office hours from 9 am to 5 pm.

The company, which applies a flexible policy on remote work, often encourages its employees to set uncomfortably ambitious goals. The pace of work is justified as it allows Coinbase to meet its annual targets and stay ahead of the curve, the company said. However, Brock admitted that the environment could be exhausting and not sustainable.

Four Weeks off Due to Intense Work

The chief of staff reported that Coinbase is opting to test a four-week recharge layoff model per year. The experiment would allow employees to take about one week off per quarter in 2022 so everyone can enjoy the break without accumulating work.

The recharge weeks will be in addition to the annual vacation, although the company has encouraged its employees to schedule the vacation to coincide with the rest weeks.

Coinbase said it is concerned that its employees weren’t taking enough time off because they didn’t want to be left behind with their chores or carry extra weight on their colleagues.

Subsequent surveys confirmed that exchange workers supported the rest model to recharge. The blog post highlights that 52% of employees expressed that recharging days and weeks were the main tools that helped them rest and recover in 2021.

Labor Benefits to Maintain Human Talent

The company assured that the move would ensure the sustainable growth of Coinbase in the long term. He also added that during these recharge periods, he will still have teams with critical responsibilities 24/7, such as customer service and security, scheduled alternate recharge weeks.

On the other hand, while they assured that the intense workdays are not “sustainable” in the long term, Coinbase does not plan to maintain the four-week recharge model beyond 2022. In the entry, Brock said it would be a matter that the company will evaluate as they go and also said they consider it the correct approach.

Other technology companies are also looking to offer various benefits in a fight to maintain human talent and ensure long-term success. For example, the email platform reported that there would be a reduction on its weekly workday to four days after conducting an experiment that showed improved productivity.

On the other hand, some reports have revealed that tech giant Apple has been offering rare bonuses of up to $ 180,000 as a way to retain engineers and other tech experts. The measure would prevent the hunt for talent from companies like Meta (formerly Facebook).

By: Jenson Nuñez