Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach said on Tuesday that he does not expect SWIFT, one of the most widely used platforms for cross-border fiat transactions, to exist in five years' time. Miebach was speaking at a panel session on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as part of the Global Blockchain Business Council’s (GBBC) Blockchain Central Davos conference, which ran adjacent to the World Economic Forum 2022 in Davos, Switzerland. Kicking off GBBC’s #BlockchainCentral Davos session on CBDCs with @eva_szalay @FT @YuvalRooz @digitalassetcom @Jbrookslassiter @Digital_Dollar_ @MiebachMichael @Mastercard @BIS_org @DBTreat @Accenture pic.twitter.com/C2fvgy0Bij — Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) (@GBBCouncil) May 24, 2022 Toward …

The European Central Bank (ECB) continues pushing its central bank digital currency (CBDC) project despite Europeans apparently not feeling too positive about a digital euro. The ECB released another working paper on the digital euro, providing an extensive technical analysis of a potential European CBDC and its position in the existing financial system. Issued on May 13, the working paper aims to study issues like financial intermediation, payment choices and privacy in the digital economy, providing a large number of related algebra-based conclusions. The study suggests that a “CBDC with anonymity” is preferable to traditional digital payments like bank deposits …

The European Central Bank (ECB) is planning to launch a prototype of the digital euro in 2023. In the next five years, Europe could have its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) up and running. However, there are still many questions surrounding the prospective digital currency. In what form could it be issued? Is the ECB too late for the CBDC party, especially compared to other central banks such as that of the People’s Republic of China? To address these and other questions, Cointelegraph auf Deutsch spoke with Jonas Gross, chairman of the Digital Euro Association (DEA) and member of …

The Central Bank of Chile has delayed its plans for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) saying the issuance of a digital Chilean peso requires a deeper analysis of the benefits and risks, promising a new report toward the end of the year. A report from the bank published on May 11 included a preliminary evaluation of a Chilean CBDC. It explored the country’s current payment system, along with the benefits, risks and principles of issuing a digital peso. The bank stated while the current payment system “works adequately” and has been able to “adapt well to recent challenges,” a …

Despite the fact that it still hasn't made a final decision on the launch of the “digital shekel,” Israel’s central bank reported that the public feedback on the project is mainly positive. According to Reuters, on Monday, The Bank of Israel summarized the results of the public consultation on its central bank digital currency (CBDC) plans. It has received 33 responses from different sectors, with half of them coming from abroad and 17 from the domestic fintech community. While specifying that the final decision on the project’s fate is yet to be made, it claimed: “All of the responses to …

Popular podcaster Joe Rogan just gets Bitcoin (BTC). In his most recent podcast with Khalil Rountree, a renowned mixed martial (MMA) fighter, Rogan explained that BTC is something that the “government didn’t see coming.” “I think of Bitcoin the same way I think of the early internet. They [the government] didn’t see it coming and now it’s a viable form of currency–you can actually buy things with it.” Rogan explained that there will be a time when “some government” will implement a “centralized currency that they can control,” with the intention to “limit what you spend your money on.” Bitcoin …

The Market Report with Cointelegraph is live right now. On this week’s show, Cointelegraph’s resident experts discuss what they believe are the top three most bullish coins one should take a closer look at. But first, market expert Marcel Pechman carefully examines the Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) markets. Are the current market conditions bullish or bearish? What is the outlook for the next few months? Pechman is here to break it down. Next up: the main event. Join Cointelegraph analysts Benton Yaun, Jordan Finneseth and Sam Bourgi as each makes his case for the most bullish cryptocurrency right now. …

The crypto community and Wall Street converged last week in Nassau, Bahamas, to discuss the future of digital assets during SALT’s Crypto Bahamas conference. The SkyBridge Alternatives Conference (SALT) was also co-hosted this year by FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange. Anthony Scaramucci, founder of the hedge fund SkyBridge Capital, kicked off Crypto Bahamas with a press conference explaining that the goal behind the event was to merge the traditional financial world with the crypto community: “Crypto Bahamas combines the crypto native FTX audience with the SkyBridge asset management firm audience. We are bringing these two worlds together to create a …

Residents in three major Chinese cities have begun paying tax, stamp duty and social security premiums using the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) — the digital yuan (e-CNY). According to a domestic news report, a number of government agencies in the Zhejiang province — located just south of Shanghai — are currently running real-world trials programs that involve citizens using the digital yuan to pay taxes. The Zhejiang Taxation Bureau is working with the country’s central bank — the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) — to explore a variety of taxation payment methods using the digital yuan. The PBoC …

Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Chris Giancarlo, known by some as Crypto Dad during his tenure from 2017 to 2019, spoke on the topic of U.S. crypto regulation at the Crypto Bahamas conference on Thursday. He called the current U.S. regulations, many of which were written in the 1930s, “nonapplicable” to the current financial reality of cryptocurrencies. Giancarlo expressed concern that central banks were usurping crypto. “If you read the utterances out of the European Central Bank, there is nothing but FUD toward non-sovereign crypto,” he said, noting that China took the same approach when it banned all …

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has warned that stablecoins could undermine the Hong Kong dollar in a recently released discussion paper about its retail central bank digital currency, e-HKD. The HKMA today issued a discussion paper, outlining the policy and design issues involved in the introduction of e-HKD, and encourages the public and industry to participate in the consultation and share their views. Find out more: https://t.co/GndjuZ2Pay pic.twitter.com/hRz2noD0Ps — HKMA 香港金融管理局 (@hkmagovhk) April 27, 2022 Many in the crypto industry believe that interest in developing central bank digital currencies (CBDC) has been in response to the rise of private-sector …

The Philippines will pursue a wholesale central bank digital currency pilot project, to be called Project CBDCPh, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor Benjamin E. Diokno announced Wednesday. Diokno spoke about the project last week at a roundtable of the 14th Annual Group of 24/Alliance for Financial Inclusion Policymakers held at the International Monetary Fund–World Bank spring meetings in Washington, DC. The project will be led by an intersectoral domestic team, Diokno said, as well as “external advisers from international standard-setting bodies and multilateral institutions to build on training and knowledge sharing on CBDC development and implementation all over the world.” …