Bitcoin Headlines that Matter - 12/8/2020

Bitcoin Adoption

MicroStrategy to Raise $400 Million to Buy Even More Bitcoin

MicroStrategy Inc. is doubling down on its Bitcoin bet, saying Monday that it plans to offer $400 million of convertible bonds in order to buy more of the cryptocurrency.

Very interesting development. Michael Saylor has commented on his FOMO previously. He it doubling down on being a first mover.

Government Crackdown?

G7 finance officials back need to regulate digital currencies: Treasury

G7 finance officials discussed ongoing responses to “the evolving landscape of crypto assets and other digital assets and national authorities’ work to prevent their use for malign purposes and illicit activities,” Treasury said.

“There is strong support across the G7 on the need to regulate digital currencies,” the statement said.

Firstly, this is primarily a reaction to stablecoins and Facebook's Diem coin trying to launch in January. "Bitcoin" doesn't appear in the article.

Secondly, "strong support" for regulation does not equal action. We cannot rule out more stiff regulation, but it's unlikely. However, it is more likely in countries whose currencies are weaker.

Bitcoin’s ‘Integrity’ Flaws May Lead to Failure, Gary Cohn Says

“Part of the integrity of a system is knowing who owns it and knowing who has it and knowing why it’s being transferred,” Cohn said. “The Bitcoin system today has no transparency to it. So there are a lot of people that question, why would you need a system that does not have an audit trail.”

Just think, the FINCEN leaks showed $5 trillion a year in big bank money laundering. Who wants privacy? This is just an out of touch Goldman stooge.

European Central Bank Prez Blasts Bitcoin, Praises Digital Euro Efforts

This is a treasure trove for understanding what central bankers are thinking. They are flailing. They have no idea how the international financial system works currently. There is no grand conspiracy. Anything they do will backfire on them.

I'm going to do a podcast on this article specifically soon. Stand by.

CBDCs

Ruble or Rubble? Russian Institutions Have Concerns About Proposed CBDC

Like all other central banks evaluating CBDCs, Russia is having a dialogue about a "crypto ruble". They seem quite transparent, perhaps because they are a smaller currency.

The country's largest retail bank understands the situation better than most.

“That would juxtapose banks and the Bank of Russia, and instead of the further development we’ll have a competition,” Popov said. “It would be a centralized system. This is the concern.”

“Payments with the digital ruble will be competing with electronic payments, and both will be developing in parallel,” Shvetsov said. He added that retail banks will still have some advantage in this race as they can offer interest on deposits, while the digital ruble will not have such features.

Of note is the mention of a "hybrid model" where banks would be intermediaries between their clients and the central bank. This is an interesting proposal, but I'd call this a negotiation between banks and a smaller central bank. That negotiation would take on a whole new dimension in the US.

China to Test 'Tap' Payments for Digital Yuan

It's the end of 2020, lots of testing and pilot programs for the digital yuan, but not much else. It wreaks of altcoin testing that leads to a very disappointing launch a couple years later. When will it be widely used? Probably never. Eventually, it will transform into a payment app run by the PBoC. Nothing more, nothing less.