Indian authorities continue to express support for a government-backed digital currency to replace privately-issued cryptocurrencies. According to Bloomberg, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das has expressed the central bank’s determination to create a digital rupee. According to Das, India’s central bank is “very much in the game” and wants to emulate China’s digital currency electronic project, the digital yuan. The RBI chief also revealed that the digital rupee project is a major focus for the central bank. While there has been no official release date for the proposed CBDC, Das said that the RBI is currently finetuning the technological and procedural protocols …

Several major banks across Asia have joined forces to construct a cross-border central bank digital currency, according to a joint announcement issued on Feb. 23. Dubbed the Multiple Central Bank Digital Currency Bridge, or m-CBDC, the project sees the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Bank of Thailand, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates and the Digital Currency Institute of the People's Bank of China combine to create a CBDC prototype using distributed ledger technology. Building upon the “Inthanon-LionRock” research project started in 2019, the latest phase of the exploration into CBDCs will develop a proof-of-concept to “facilitate real-time …

Amid a major downward correction in the cryptocurrency market, the head of South Korea’s central bank is skeptical about digital currencies like Bitcoin (BTC). Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol said that crypto assets like Bitcoin have no intrinsic value, local news agency Yonhap reports Tuesday. The official said that he expects more price swings on the market, stating, “It is very difficult to predict the price, but its price will be extremely volatile.” Speaking at the National Assembly, Lee also addressed possible reasons behind the recent sharp crypto rally, which led Bitcoin to become a $1 trillion asset. The …

China’s central bank is pushing exposure to its ongoing national digital currency pilot by enlisting two major private banks in the project. According to a Monday Bloomberg report, MYbank and WeBank will help the People's Bank of China extend its user exposure in the ongoing pilots of its central bank digital currency, the digital yuan. As part of the integration, MYbank’s service will soon be introduced to the PBoC’s digital yuan app, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The e-wallets by MYbank and WeBank will reportedly have exactly the same functions as those from the six state-owned lenders in …

After paving the way for digital currency innovation at the Bank of England, or BoE, Mark Carney has officially joined the board of directors at Stripe — a company that’s committed to building new commerce solutions for the internet. Stripe introduced Carney as board member on Sunday, where he joins Christa Davies, Diane Greene, Jonathan Chadwick, Sir Michael Moritz and Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison. The U.S. digital payments company says it will benefit from Carney’s “extensive experience of global financial systems and governance,” especially as it rolls out new climate efforts. “The very nature of commerce has changed …

Image a scenario where you need different messengers to send different types of messages — for example, WhatsApp for text messages, Viber for audio, Telegram for video, etc. Rather inconvenient, right? But this is exactly what happens in finance: There is no way to send both digital fiat money and cryptocurrency from a bank account without extra steps. It’s not affecting the masses just yet, but after the issuing of national digital currencies, or central bank digital currencies, in the next few years over the world, the situation is about to become complicated. We need to start looking for a …

China’s large-scale digital yuan testing across several cities continues to gather pace with some financial institution leading the development of hardware wallets for the central bank digital currency. According to news agency Xinhua, the Postal Savings Bank of China has created a biometric hardware wallet for the project. The biometric hardware wallet enables easy identity verification for users via fingerprint sensors on the card. Consumers participating in the CBDC trials in Beijing are also able to use the card to access healthcare services. Indeed, the Postal Savings Bank of China said the hardware wallet, which is still in the testing …

The Bahamas is moving to make its national digital currency more accessible by launching a prepaid card for the “sand dollar.” The Central Bank of The Bahamas has partnered with global payment giant Mastercard and local payment startup Island Pay to create a card that supports the sand dollar central bank digital currency. According to a Wednesday announcement, the card is running under a new program from Mastercard and Island Pay, allowing users to convert the digital currency to traditional Bahamian dollars and pay for goods and services. The new card will be accepted for payments across the Caribbean region …

Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, recently announced that it has extended an ongoing pilot aimed at creating a digital version of the Swedish krona until 2022. In combination with professional services firm Accenture, the “e-krona” pilot program was created to address what the Riksbank sees as “the marginalization of cash”: “The Riksbank sees potential problems with the marginalisation of cash and has therefore initiated a pilot project to develop a proposal for a technical solution for a central bank digital currency, an e-krona that can work as a complement to cash." The recent announcement states that no decision has been …

Major Russian mobile network operators like MegaFon and Beeline are considering how the digital ruble will function on their mobile devices. According to a Feb. 16 report by local news agency Izvestia, Beeline and MegaFon proposed to set up smartphone wallets for Russia’s central bank digital currency. The carriers also suggested additional services like linking a digital wallet to a customer’s phone number. This would allow users to store digital rubles directly on their smartphones as well as transfer and pay with the digital currency using smart devices, a spokesperson for MegaFon said. According to Izvestia, both MegaFon and Beeline …

In the past few months cryptocurrencies have become a frequent topic of discussion among the mainstream media and traditional investors partially because of the Bitcoin evangelism of well-known influencers like Elon Musk, Mark Cuban and Michael Saylor. One platform that has benefited from increased attention on the cryptocurrency sector is Algorand (ALGO), a scalable, secure, and decentralized digital currency platform. Since the start of 2021, ALGO price has steadily grown from $0.33 on Jan. 1 to $1.84 on Feb.12, its highest level since July 2019. Its trading volume also increased from $70 million to $1.1 billion during that same period. …

Major Canadian universities have submitted new research to the Bank of Canada centered around the development of a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, underscoring the innovation underway in this space. The research began last year after the BoC engaged four institutions around potential designs for a national cryptocurrency. A total of three proposals were published simultaneously on Thursday. Notably, each proposal was based on the application of blockchain technology. The submission from the University of Calgary leverages “a mix of distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) and electronic cash (“e-cash”) schemes with advanced cryptographic primitives.” The submission focuses extensively on promoting …