China’s central bank is reportedly developing its own digital currency in response to Facebook’s Libra as the latter could purportedly pose a risk to the country’s financial system, the South China Morning Post reported on July 8. Wang Xin, director of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) research bureau, argued that “if [Libra] is widely used for payments, cross-border payments in particular, would it be able to function like money and accordingly have a large influence on monetary policy, financial stability and the international monetary system?” Wang said that the bank decided to create its own digital currency specifically because …

Since the beginning of 2018, rumors and then news about some large players entering the blockchain industry mesmerized the crypto community. Presently, the projects promoted by JPMorgan Chase, Facebook and Telegram are at the testnet level, but the companies have disclosed more accurate information about them. The differences among the three projects are enormous — their aims, business models, technology, etc. Some similarities exist, nevertheless. However, with diversified feelings toward these projects, the community pointed out the challenges that they have introduced to the industry. This time, the proposal for a new cryptocurrency is not coming from an adventurous startup …

An out-of-the-box solution says it enables anyone, even with no experience, to build their own blockchain in under 10 minutes. According to Nuls, businesses are going through a similar evolution as they did with the early internet, when every company wanted their own website: They now want their own blockchain. And although these firms may not fully understand how to deploy blockchain technology, they are aware of how their business may benefit from it. Nuls aims is to “dismantle some of the biggest barriers” that are stopping individuals and companies of all sizes from creating their own blockchains. Hurdles for …

Coming every Sunday, the Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions, and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Bitcoin price “extremely bullish” again after 20% pump over $11,000 True to form, Bitcoin (BTC) took markets and the media by surprise when prices leapt by more than 20% in 24 hours. Prices against the dollar had dwindled as low as $9,688 earlier in the week — but by Wednesday, they surged back to …

European Central Bank executive board member Benoit Coeure said that financial regulators must act fast to prepare for Facebook’s Libra stablecoin, Bloomberg reports on July 7. Per Bloomberg, Coeure argued on Sunday in Aix-en-Provence in southern France that allowing for the development of new financial services and asset classes in a regulatory void is irresponsible. He concluded: “We [financial regulators] have to move more quickly than we’ve been able to do up until now.” According to Coeure, the development of digital assets has exposed gaps in current financial regulations, and underlines banks’ slow rate of adoption of new technologies: “All …

Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of payments company Circle, said that Facebook's Libra will run in a closed-loop permission scheme that has its own requirements for regulation during an interview with Bloomberg released on July 5. During the interview, Allaire pointed out that there are different stablecoin implementations distinct in their regulatory approach. He explained: “There’s a really key difference between stablecoins that run on kind of closed-loop permission schemes — which is how Libra is being proposed today, at least in its initial incarnation — versus stablecoins that can run on the public internet.” Allaire also specified that the …

Accounting for almost 40% of bitcoin tweets worldwide, the United States looms large over crypto twitter. According to a new thread of tweets, published July 3, by crypto data and infrastructure provider The TIE, overall 38.9% of total bitcoin tweets come from the U.S. Another 10.5% come from the UK. The top five countries generating bitcoin discussion on Twitter are the U.S., U.K., Canada, Turkey and India, the TIE reveals. In an analysis of how far that social media sentiment is positive, the TIE has found that — in order — Peru, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Italy show the most …

David Marcus, the head of Calibra at Facebook, emphasized that Libra users will not have to put their trust in Facebook, in a post on July 3. Marcus reiterated that Facebook is not the only member of the Libra Network, and that they are relinquishing control of the network. In the post, he says: “Facebook will not control the network, the currency, or the reserve backing it. Facebook will only be one among over a hundred members of the Libra Association by launch. We will not have any special rights or privileges.” Relinquishing control over the infrastructure behind Libra is …

The United States House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services requested Facebook and its partners to stop the development of the Libra stablecoin. In a July 2 letter addressed to Facebook CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and David Marcus, and COO Sheryl Sandberg, the lawmakers request that Facebook and its partners immediately agree to a moratorium on the development of Libra and its dedicated Calibra wallet. The committee claims that the project may lead ”to an entirely new global financial system that is based out of Switzerland and intended to rival U.S. monetary policy and the dollar.” The committee notes that it …

Nobel prize-winning economist, Joseph Eugene Stiglitz, claims that “every currency is based on trust, but only a fool would trust Facebook’s Libra” in an article published on July 2. Stiglitz also notes that “in just a few short years, Facebook has earned a level of distrust that took the banking sector much longer to achieve.” He appears to fear that Facebook’s cryptocurrency could be hospitable to a shadow economy: “The last thing we need is a new vehicle for nurturing illicit activities and laundering the proceeds, which another cryptocurrency will almost certainly turn out to be.” Still, the economist also …

Over 30 advocacy groups have appeared as signatories on a request that Congress and regulators implement an official moratorium on Libra development, as per the letter published on July 2. The letter was also addressed to Facebook, with Mark Zuckerberg himself cc’d, and asked that the social media giant wait until Congress and regulators have scrutinized a detailed presentation of the proposed stablecoin-esque virtual currency. The letter includes a number of questions that the signatories say need answers before Libra can proceed, including the following: “The plan for Libra makes explicit and implicit promises to consumers – such as the …

Financial services firm Jefferies’ recent survey indicates that American users will hardly use Facebook’s forthcoming stablecoin Libra due to a lack of trust, The Block reported on July 1 In the survey, which included over 600 respondents, four in five people reportedly chose “Unlikely” or “Very unlikely” when asked whether they would purchase Libra. 45% of the respondents explained their unwillingness to buy the coin as due to a lack of trust in Facebook, unless the company has no access to their transaction data. Nearly 40% of those surveyed reportedly pointed out that they already have a mobile payment wallet, …