Category Technology

North American retail giant Walmart is looking for an experienced crypto expert who can develop and drive an ambitious digital currency strategy and product roadmap. 

In the listing for the role, Walmart indicates it is looking for someone who has a track record in leading and scaling businesses, with at least 10 years of experience in product/program management and technology-based product commercialization. The ideal candidate would have expertise in cryptocurrencies and blockchain-related technologies and in-depth knowledge of the crypto ecosystem and its core actors.

Walmart has hinted at the focus of its future digital currency strategy by noting that it already enables a “broad set of payment options for its customers” — although not yet in cryptocurrency. Back in 2019, Walmart had already filed a patent for a blockchain-based U.S. dollar-backed digital currency that was, at the time, similar to Facebook’s early proposals for what was then known as Libra.

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A new stablecoin pegged to the value of the Chilean Peso is now live on the open-source Stellar payments network — but is yet to prove popular with users.

Chile-based firm CLPX Inc launched what it describes as the first-ever Chilean Peso pegged stablecoin dubbed the “CLPX” token.

According to the public ledger on Stellar Expert, since the launch on Monday the stablecoin has seen limited volume of just $12,689 from a total of 12,902 trades.

CLPX was designed to provide a cheaper alternative to traditional Peso-based remittances, with the firm utilizing the Stellar Network as it incurs “substantially” lower fees than wire transfers or remittance services.

“The new CLPX token is set to streamline remittances and make it easy for investors worldwide to use the copper-linked Chilean peso as a hedge,” an announcement read.

CLPX also has an eye on offering international exposure to Chile’s booming copper market, which has been a critical driver of economic recovery amid the global pandemic. The Latin American nation is the current world’s leading copper producer by a long distance, with China being the main buyer of Chile’s red metals.

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Ripple is a payment processing network that was created to meet the requirements of the financial services sector. XRP, a cryptocurrency designed to operate on the Ripple network, has regularly ranked 5th in cryptocurrencies in terms of market value. Ripple refers to both a cryptocurrency (XRP) and also an open transaction network via which that money may be exchanged. It is a decentralized, open-source payment method that is currently under development. According to the ripple system’s website, the system aims to allow individuals to break free from the “walled gardens” of financial networks – i.e., credit cards, financial institutions, PayPal, and other organizations that limit access through fees, currency conversion costs, and processing delays.

In What Ways Are Ripple (XRP) And Bitcoin Different From One Another?

The primary distinction between bitcoin as well as a ripple in its initial purpose. Firstly, Bitcoin has been created as a decentralized peer-to-peer replacement to the conventional payment system. The concept behind bitcoin has been that a third party or intermediary is no longer required to trade value. On the other hand, Ripple is being designed to supplement rather than replace banks’ existing payment systems. Ripple’s protocol may be used to send money.

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CoinDesk Learn Editor Ollie Leech explains why the cryptocurrency community isn't excited about the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Video Transcript

- Something else to understand is what's going on in the Crypto Corner. And we want to bring in Ollie Leech, Coindesk Learn Editor. Lot to talk about here. I mean, I got Bitcoin back above $46,000. But I can't avoid the elephant in the room.

We saw the PolyNetwork, the decentralized finance platform that got hacked. Apparently, the hackers have returned, what, about a third of the 600 million that was stolen. But what is the message that this is sending to investors and to the crypto world?

OLLIE LEECH: Yeah, it's a really interesting story, actually. Like you said, you know, over $260 million has been returned. SlowMist, a blockchain-based security team was able to somehow uncover the hacker's mailbox, IP, fingerprints. And a lot of the industry got together-- [INAUDIBLE], Binance, a lot of these leading exchanges acknowledged the attack and were going to help blacklist these addresses to try and cut off the hackers' escape routes.

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It is well-known by now that cryptocurrencies are here to stay. They have become an asset class with a market cap of over $1.7 trillion to their name. The market even topped the $2 trillion mark back in April.

Yet, despite the growing adoption, the gap between crypto and fiat worlds is still some ways off from completely closing. There are two main issues holding back cryptocurrency adoption.

The first is that while crypto and blockchain applications are prevalent, it isn’t straightforward for companies in the fiat world to integrate cryptocurrencies into their service offering.

A good example is Revolut. While they have the resources to introduce crypto-related services, they are still in the process of rolling out crypto-derived services after several years’ worth of effort. They only introduced a crypto withdrawal facility earlier this year. 

Similarly, crypto projects have a hard time accepting payments in fiat. There are practically no solutions that make conducting local/cross-border payments possible for such projects.

Continue reading at beincrypto.com

Digital Currency Investment House, Silver Castle, and The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Ltd (TASE: TASE) announced today the first-ever issuance of Bitcoin linked and backed bonds on TASE UP. This new channel of investment in Bitcoin creates a pathway for institutional and qualified investors into the digital currency realm and further diversification of their investment portfolio.

The series of bonds issued will have term of three years and will not bear interest. The capital raised in the issuance will be used solely in the purchase of Bitcoin and the monies will be fully exposed to the exchange rate of the Bitcoin. The trading of the bonds will be subject to the rules of TASE UP. The redemption of the Bitcoin will be paid for in Shekels, based on the exchange rate of the Bitcoin on redemption date, less commissions. Weekly early redemption will become available at the end of three months, based on a formula that weights the exchange rate of the Bitcoin on early redemption, less commissions.

The new instrument enables exposure to Bitcoin with significantly reduced operational risks and product holding costs. Until now, Bitcoin could be obtained by way of direct purchase and holding, bitcoin delivery agreements, and Israeli or foreign hedge funds. Starting today, institutional and qualified investors can also purchase Israeli Bitcoin bonds on TASE UP.

Continue reading at prnewswire.com

The entire crypto market saw a crash last week and both of these cryptocurrencies took a hit. Below is a comparison of the charts over the past month.

Bitcoin Daily Chart Analysis:

• Bitcoin was unable to break out of the ascending triangle pattern. It saw a large dump after it was unable to cross above the $60,000 level.
• Bitcoin is trading below both the 50-day moving average (green) and the 200-day moving average (blue), indicating the sentiment has been bearish.
• Each of these moving averages may hold as an area of resistance on the chart.

Continue reading at benzinga.com

Indexed joins the fleet of DeFi projects aiming to make passive investing in specific markets in crypto much easier.

Crypto, and DeFi in particular, can be tedious work to follow. By facilitating investment in specific sectors through indices, Indexed Finance creates an enticing financial product that removes much of the hassle of micromanaging a portfolio.  

What Is Indexed?

Not dissimilar to a traditional index fund, Indexed offers passive portfolio management strategies that allow for easy investment in broad sectors of the crypto market.  

In traditional finance, indices are an extremely popular product. There are currently 5,000 U.S. indices available to trade on the stock market. They allow investors to increase their exposure to particular market sectors while softening any sudden downward price movements from a single investment. These indices can represent a country’s largest companies, the key players in a certain sector (the XLV for the health care market, for example), or even a wider selection of consistently well-performing companies like the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Indices play a key role in analyzing the health of a sector and facilitating investments in a broader market.

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Turkey’s fiat currency, the Lira (TRY), is in serious trouble – especially against Bitcoin – with consumer price inflation reaching an alarming 16% in March of this year. In January of 2008, the Lira traded at near-parity with the US Dollar but is currently near its all time low of 8.5 TRY to the USD.

Perhaps in response to the surging demand for reliable hard money alternatives like Bitcoin, the Turkish central bank, the CBRT, banned cryptocurrency as a payment method for goods and services in mid-April of this year.

The Plan

The subsequent failure of two Turkish crypto exchanges, Thodex and Vebitcoin, was perhaps a fairly predictable consequence of the harsh and sweeping new restrictions. While the CBRT’s governor has denied any blanket ban of crypto, according to a report published on Bloomberg and attributed to a senior government official, the CBRT is now planning to aggressively regulate the Turkish crypto industry. Much of the proposed regulation appears designed to prevent further exchange failures.

Continue reading at newsbtc.com

What people want most from digital currency is privacy, the European Central Bank (ECB) said in its report from public consultations about the possibility of a central bank coin.

The ECB said that 43 percent of the respondents pointed to anonymity as a main requirement for any digital currency. People also stated that any digital euro should also be integrated with the methods and resources already being used for payments and other financial services. 

Further, citizens and businesses answering the survey indicated that they want a no-fee solution in addition to security, usability, and non-digital use. The ECB is still in the research stages of deciding whether it makes sense to pursue eCurrency. 

The public consultation — conducted from October 2020 until January of this year — is just one step in determining what will work for consumers and businesses alike. About 25 percent of respondents also said they believed that a digital euro should advance cross-border payments, and make the transactions fast, seamless, and less expensive.

The ECB is just one of many central banks worldwide looking into launching digital currency that would be on par with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin but also more usable and predictable.

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