As China is moving forward with blockchain projects amid the COVID-19 crisis, the government has tapped another tech partnership to continue the development of China’s digital yuan. Domestic artificial intelligence (AI) startup SenseTime has partnered with the People’s Bank of China’s (PBoC) Digital Currency Research Institute to provide its AI expertise amid the reported trials of the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC). SenseTime to accelerate AI advancement in a joint body with PBoC SenseTime, purportedly the world’s highest-valued AI startup with an over $7.5 billion valuation, will work with the PBoC to improve risk control and operational capabilities across financial …

Uphold, a digital money platform providing access to investments and payments using blockchain technology, has announced the expansion of its stablecoin offerings alongside the launch of a “Stablecoin Center.” The Center, according to the announcement, will offer access to six stablecoins in the platform, including four of the most popular in terms of market volume: Tether (USDT), TrueUSD (TUSD), USD Coin (USDC) and DAI. Uphold has also added coins from the Universal Protocol Alliance, such as UPUSD and UPEUR. Writing to Cointelegraph, Uphold’s CEO, JP Thieriot, praised the recent addition of stablecoins: “Stablecoins are inherently less volatile than cryptos being …

Top blockchain payment service provider BitPay has partnered with Binance to support the exchange’s stablecoin BUSD. The stablecoin is now available to BitPay’s 2 million individual and merchant customers. BitPay’s wallet launched support for BUSD on April 27, with merchant support slated to go live “in the coming days.” Support for BUSD will also be rolled out for BitPay Card. While only United States-based customers are able to use BitPay Card, the product is available in all 50 states. Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s founder and chief executive, stated that the company is “honored to partner with BitPay,” describing the company as …

A recent report from Binance Research claimed Facebook's Libra is as disruptive for the payments industry as SpaceX was for interstellar travel — but why? When it entered the rocket sector, SpaceX found an industry laden with high entry barriers and largely dominated by public market players, a Binance Research representative told Cointelegraph in an email. Therefore, the industry also yielded "little movement, as there were hardly any incentives to innovate beyond incrementally improving the product," the rep said. "The same is true for the current payments landscape." Borders limit the current payment systems In a recent in-depth report on …

Benoît Cœuré, the head of the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub, recently asserted that central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, have been brought “into sharper focus” amid the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking during a webinar hosted by Accenture, the ReReinventing Bretton Woods Committee, and the Chamber of Digital Commerce on April 17, Cœuré asserted that “the crisis has exposed the value of technologies which enable the economy to operate at arm’s length.” He also revealed that the Bank of International Settlements, or BIS, is exploring tokenization as a possible solution for restarting segments of the economy during the lock-down. Coronavirus …

A survey published by peer-to-peer Bitcoin (BTC) marketplace, Paxful, has found that Americans with a working knowledge of cryptocurrency believe that the largest barrier to mainstream crypto adoption is a ”lack of knowledge” among the general population. The survey seeks to explore the longer-term outlook for crypto held by 500 United States-based men and women with a competent understanding of crypto assets. Is public understanding the biggest barrier to crypto adoption? Nearly 54% of respondents asserted that limited knowledge of cryptocurrency among the general public is the largest barrier to the widespread use of crypto assets. 34% of respondents answered …

As 2020 staggers on, the scourge of the coronavirus is showing no sign of relenting any time soon. Since the reality of the pandemic took hold, it has revealed itself to be a black swan the likes of which have never before been seen. Cryptocurrencies suffer from volatility in the best of times, and markets have spent most of the last two years in the red. But companies, markets and entire economies all over the world are tanking. So, is cryptocurrency’s notorious Achilles' heel affecting its banking and payments sector? SoftBank posts hard landing There’s not a business in the …

Colombian-based cross-border remittance start-up Valiu has launched Bitcoin-backed synthetic U.S. dollars as a means for Venezuelans to access stable assets and bypass the hyperinflation plaguing their national economy. It’s still in Alpha, but Valiu has partnered with Latin America food delivery app Rappi, which could offer a large user base to help with adoption when it’s rolled out in full later this year. Synthetic USD On April 23, Valiu chief executive Simon Chamorro tweeted that the firm’s ‘cryptodollar’ has launched in alpha: “After 4 months of 80+ hour work weeks, 500k+ lines of clean code written across 4 engineers, shifting …

The total fees paid for on-chain Bitcoin (BTC) transactions over the last 24 hours increased over 50% since yesterday. On-chain data analytics service, Glassnode, pointed out several major developments shown by Bitcoin’s blockchain data. According to the firm, total Bitcoin fees paid over the last 24 hours increased by 50.7% to over $9,500. Furthermore, the Bitcoin mean fee paid by users increased by 58.8%, reaching $0.78. Meni Rosenfeld, the Chairman of the Israeli Bitcoin Association, told Cointelegraph that he believes 24-hour fees show too short a timeframe to be particularly significant. He pointed out that historic data shows that the …

LG Corporation’s IT services subsidiary is now testing artificial intelligence-based facial recognition technology which allows users to conduct payments using digital currency. LG CNS used its employees to test the new facial recognition service, IT Times reported on April 23. The platform includes AI, blockchain, and cloud technologies. After identifying an employee, the system enables them to automatically pay for services and products at the corporate restaurant with a pre-registered blockchain-based community currency. Lee Joon-won, solution business development manager at LG CNS, said: "It is expected that blockchain-based community currency will be used by a lot more people as it …

Social payments application Bundle launched its service in Nigeria after incubation by leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance. According to an announcement on April 23, Bundle now allows its users to request, send and receive cash or crypto from their peers in Nigeria. By the end of this year, the firm plans to expand to over 30 African countries and provide a simple fiat on and off-ramp for crypto in the continent. Bundle supports Binance Coin (BNB), Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) as well as the local fiat currency — the Nigerian naira — but there are plans to add more fiat …

Blockchain banking solution Dharma has implemented a new feature called Social Payments, allowing users to send U.S. dollars to any Twitter handle. An April 21 tweet announcing the move explained that payments can be made regardless of geographical location or whether the recipient has a Dharma account. Dharma users can make payments to Twitter handles from directly within their Smart Wallet, as long as there are sufficient funds in their account. The only further step is to retweet the payment to a twitter bot, tagging the recipient so that they are notified. Payment recipients must follow the link sent by …