The cryptocurrency market has rebounded, with Bitcoin (BTC) breaking above the $55,000 resistance level once again. While writing this article, Bitcoin was trading at $57,375, up 4% in the last 24 hours.
Ether (ETH) was trading at $1,804, an increase of 7.5% in the same period. XRP was trading at $0.5634, reflecting a gain of 2.3%.
Other major altcoins, which have lost ground in the past 24 hours, include Bitcoin Cash (BCH-$515.41, 4.7%), Bitcoin SV (BSV-$205.25, 4%), Stellar (XLM-$0.4050, 2.8%), IOTA (IOTA-$1.49, 8%), EOS (EOS-$4.27, 4.7%), Binance Coin (BNB-$273.56, 2.6%), Dash (DASH-$213.26, 4.4%), Polkadot (DOT-$33.86, 6.3%), Monero (XMR-$234.12, 1.1%), Tron (TRX-$0.0644, 1.7%), Tezos (XTZ-4.66, 9.6%), ChainLink (LINK-$28.37, 5.9%), Cosmos (ATOM, $20.18, 5.8%) and Cardano (ADA-$1.20, 1.4%).
Government level initiatives
Mu Changchun explains how the digital yuan attains privacy
The Director of China’s Central Bank Digital Currency Research Institute, Mu Changchun, has explained how the digital yuan (e-CNY) attains privacy and ‘controllable anonymity.’
In the meanwhile, the central bank has commenced another digital yuan giveaway program in Changsha, Hunan. The initiative marks the beginning of the second stage of the trial.
The CBDC offered by China can be stored in four kinds of wallets. While speaking in an event conducted by China Development Forum, Mu Changchun revealed that the wallet’s anonymous version enables making a single payment of up to 500 yuan (~$77).
The wallet carries a daily limit of 1,000 yuan (~$154) and a monthly limit of 10,000 yuan ($1536). A mobile phone number is only required to create such a wallet.
As telecom firms are not permitted to provide real names and other personal info to the central bank, the wallet will remain partly (wallets are linked to bank accounts that comply with KYC norms) anonymous.
While wallet 3 facilitates up to 2,000 yuan ($307), wallet 2 enables transactions of up to 5,000 yuan ($768). Wallet 1 is the high-end version facilitating transactions of up to 50,000 yuan ($7,681).
As payments to e-commerce platforms such as JD.com are made via a sub-wallet, the wallet user’s data remains anonymous.
Concerning the digital yuan trials, the latest digital yuan reward program is taking place in Changsha, Hunan Province. Notably, the newest trial also involves offline payment and a hardware-based wallet (in the form of a card) offered by ExcelSecu.
Private sector initiatives
Massimo Zanetti to roll out an eco-friendly coffee brand
Massimo Zanetti, a famous coffee producer, headquartered in Italy, will roll out an eco-friendly coffee brand named Segafredo Storia, whose supply chain can be tracked utilizing a blockchain platform called Farmer Connect.
By next month, the brand will be made available in 11 European countries. The firm intends to launch the brand in the rest of the global markets at the start of next year.
Coffee production faces multiple issues while going through a cumbersome supply chain. One of the problems is workers earn a salary far below the minimum living wage. Furthermore, the eco-footprint of a cup of coffee cannot be discarded. On average, it requires 140 liters of water to prepare 125ml of coffee.
The adoption of blockchain throughout Segafredo’s distribution chain offers Zanetti unalterable data on production. The data can be tracked and analyzed to identify inadequacies in production and study procedures where eco-friendly processes can be employed.
It concerned accountability towards farmers that blockchain technology’s transparency feature guarantees provable fair wages and ethical production.
The system was trialed with 51 farmers from Intibuca and Lempira in Honduras. The trial involving farmers and Zanneti was backed and governed by Rainforest Alliance, a non-profit organization providing sustainability certificates.
FNZ launches ChainClear in South Africa
FNZ has said that its blockchain technology-based finance trading and settlement platform, named ChainClear, has gone live in South Africa. In May 2020, the UK-headquartered fund and wealth management firm inked a deal with FinSwitch, which links the unit trust and fund administration industry in South Africa.
As the platform utilizes blockchain, it offers a single “source of truth” regarding the ownership of funds and shared across participants, including about 140 financial entities. This minimizes asset managers and intermediate transfer agents’ requirement to recompile multiple fund ownership documents with the related cost savings.
Nick Baikoff, Managing Director at FinSwitch, said, “The FinSwitch blockchain, powered by FNZ, presents an opportunity to fundamentally re-architect the existing operational topology of the Collective Investment Scheme industry.”
Miscellaneous
Jack Dorsey successfully auctioned his first tweet as an NFT
Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey successfully auctioned his first tweet in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) for $2.90 million. The payment was made in cryptocurrency Ether (ETH) by the auction winner Sina Estavi, CEO of Malaysian blockchain technology firm Bridge Oracle.
The auction was conducted on the online platform Valuables, which is owned by tech firm Cent. Estavi will be provided with a digital certificate inked by Dorsey and all metadata linked to the post.
NFT technology facilitates owning of digital documents by individuals. The technology also paves the way for auctioning and trading of digital records, just like physical goods. The auction started in December 2020, but bids did not go beyond $3,500.
The auction process did not see any significant bids until the beginning of March 6, when offers increased from $4,500 to $2.50 million in few hours. With no further bids coming in, the auction process ended. The sale’s final price was $2.90 million (based on the appreciation in Ether’s value so far).
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