Albania Reverses from Anti to PRO Crypto

In a sudden turn of events the Western Balkan Nation of Albania has revealed its intent of turning the country into a cryptocurrency-friendly State with new regulations that would embrace the nascent sector.

Like most other nations the country previously released official warnings about cryptocurrency investment.

The Albanian government is now exploring the idea of setting up a regulatory framework that will bring it in line with some of the more progressive states in the wider European area.

The Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama described the initiative as a shocking novelty saying that the opportunity to be innovative and set up a center of gravity for innovative financial markets is open for every country despite their level of development.

This pivot towards cryptocurrencies is also an effort to open up new markets and create new opportunities for well-paid jobs and qualified people.

Currently the government of Albania is assessing and working on the drafting of a regulatory framework.

If the results are satisfactory they will not only promote cryptocurrency locally, but also internationally to showcase the willingness to become a hub for the new industry which is described as the revolution of the global financial markets.

USDC Stablecoin Launched By Coinbase And Circle

One of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the U.S. Coinbase has recently announced that it has launched the USD Stable coin (USDC).

This makes the new stablecoin the first of its kind to be traded in the platform.

The technology behind the USDC was developed by Coinbase and Circle, which are payments technology companies that uses blockchain technology.

Upon its announcement, Coinbase users on supported jurisdiction can now purchase, sell, send and receive USDC in its different applications.

The USDC will also be available to Coinbase Pro in the coming weeks and is already supported on Coinbase Wallet with more Jurisdictions available in the future.
The new cryptocurrency is 100 percent collateralized with U.S. Dollars that are held in accounts that are subject to public reporting of reserves.

The President of Coinbase and COO Asiff Hirji states that their company is issuing stablecoins that is backed 1:1 with the U.S. dollar that is audited and transparent.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that is tied to another stable currency like the U.S. Dollar which is designed to address the price volatility of the crypto markets.

The value of the stablecoin is based on the value of the backing of fiat currency, which is held by a regulated financial entity.

The Largest Newspaper Group In China Is Launching a Blockchain Laboratory

The venture capital arm of People’s Daily Online, People Capital has partnered with Xunlie Limited to explore the use of blockchain technology empowering the Chinese economy.

This is part of the global partnership agreement signed earlier this year in the U.S. during the China-US entrepreneur and Investment Summit which was hosted by the People’s Daily Online.

People Daily Online is the online version of People’s Daily which is the largest newspaper in China.

Xunlei on the other hand started as a cloud computing company which is now evolving to a blockchain company.

It has launched its own distributed file system called the ThunderChain File System (TCFS) and ThunderChain Open Platform.

The partnership will build a blockchain laboratory which will be used to explore meaningful use cases for blockchain technology across various business sectors.

Their partnership also eyes the development of a service platform for organizing offline fintech events, workshops, competitions to share, identify, and promote innovation in DLT startups.

The blockchain laboratory will be managed by the People Capital’s Blockchain Research Institute which does research on distributed ledger technology.

HTC Selling Their First Blockchain Phone For Crypto

HTC, the Taiwanese electronics giant has announced the launch of their first blockchain phone.

Dubbed as Exodus 1, the phone will be exclusively for sale at a fixed price of 0.15 Bitcoin (BTC) and 4.78 (ETH) which is comparable to the price of iPhoneXS.

At current exchange rates this is around $975, although due to the price volatility of cryptocurrencies this might as well increase to $1,500 if the price of bitcoin reaches the $10,000 USD mark.

The main selling point of the phone is its security features. The phone has been developed to operate as a hardware crypto wallet allowing the owners of the phone to locally store digital assets in its wallet.

It has been revealed that mobile phones are significantly more secure in processing cryptocurrency payments as they have the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE).

Phil Chen, head of HTC’s blockchain initiative reveals that decision to sell the smartphone exclusively on crypto is the company’s effort to bring the product to the core audience of blockchain community.

It also reflects the belief of the company to the new asset class.

Chen reveals that the decision to sell the phone solely in cryptocurrency presented internal and external organization challenges.

Bitcoin Users Are In control Via Market Forces As Shown By Bitcoin UASF

According to Adam Back, Blockstream CEO and Inventor of Bitcoin’s Proof-of-work technology, the user-activated soft fork (UASF) was an emphatic victory for users.

The USAF was a plan to activate a Bitcoin Soft fork on August 1, 2017, as a countermeasure to companies who were reluctant to support SegWit.

When enforced the participating nodes signaling BIP 148 must represent a so-called economic majority of users, exchanges and businesses of the Bitcoin Ecosystem.

It has been reported that the number of full node almost doubled in the wake of UASF as well as when the New York Agreement (NYA) group revealed their roadmap.

It was an indication that many full-node users were not happy being represented by a handful of companies making decisions on their behalf.

Back said that the UASF was a decisive victory and shows that users are in control via market forces.

He also adds that the events of last year was a very useful lesson for everyone including the NYA companies as their decisions will not be easily forgotten by active BTC investors.

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