Canadia’s new opposition leader is a Bitcoiner

September 13, 2022 Coin Telegraph

The new Conservative Party of Canada leader has previously advocated for financial freedom through crypto tokens, smart contracts and decentralized finance.

Canadian politician and noted crypto advocate Pierre Poilievre has taken the helm of Canada’s Conservative Party, which looks set to give the current administration a run for its money in the next federal election.

The pro-crypto politician reportedly won the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada in a landslide victory on Sept. 10, securing 68.15% of the electoral points up for grabs, an far outpacing his nearest opponent Jean Charest who received just 16.07 % of the vote.

Poilievre has been a member of the Conservative Party since 2003, first winning office in the 2004 election. He has since served as a Member of Parliament for seven terms and held various roles including Shadow Minister for Finance and Minister of Employment and Social Development.

Poilievre has been known as a supporter of crypto and Bitcoin (BTC), advocating for more financial freedom through tokens, smart contracts, and decentralized finance.

His latest appointment means that Canadians may be able to eventually vote for a pro-crypto Prime Minister in the 2025 federal election, which is set to take place on or before Oct. 20, 2025, to determine who will be the 45th Canadian Prime Minister.

Earlier this year, Poilievre urged the Canadian public to vote for him as leader to “make Canada the blockchain capital of the world,” adding:

“Let people take back control of their money from bankers & politicians."

Let people take back control of their money from bankers & politicians.

Expand choice, lower costs of financial products, create thousands of jobs.

Get your membership. So you can vote for me as leader. To make Canada the blockchain capital of the world: https://t.co/d9I1ky9w2t pic.twitter.com/qQrJct9gKK
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) March 28, 2022

In March, YouTube channel BITCOIN posted a video of Poilievre at a Tahinis Restaurant during his leadership election campaign talking about his support for crypto, saying: "We must keep cryptocurrencies legal."

"People should have the freedom to choose other money. If the government is going to abuse our cash, we should have the freedom to use other, higher quality cash."

He also briefly spoke about ideas to simplify crypto taxes, rules and regulations so there was a consistent law across Canada.

In the same video, he bought chicken shawarma using the Lightning Network.

However, Poilievre has offered very few specifics on how his party would implement the regulation and adoption of crypto if they unseat current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal party.

The Conservative Party of Canada currently holds 16 out of 105 seats in the Senate and 119 out of 338 in the house of commons, while Trudeau's Liberal government has a minority government with 160 seats in the house of commons.

To form a majority government requires at least 170 seats in the house of commons.

Canada made its foray into the global digital asset space when its Parliament passed a national law on digital currencies in 2014.

The Canadian regulatory council also created a new preregistration filing for crypto platforms in August of this year.

Only a relatively small number of Canadians currently hold BTC, according to the Bank of Canada Financial System Review released in June 2022 — with about 13% of Canadians owning some in 2021, up from 5% in 2020.

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75% of retailers eyeing crypto payments within 24 months: Deloitte

June 9, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Improving customer experience, increasing the customer base and a hope their brand is perceived as “cutting edge” were the biggest reasons given for a desire to adopt crypto payments.

Three quarters of United States retailers plan to accept crypto or stablecoin payments within the next two years according to a new survey.

It also found that more than half of large retailers with revenues over $500 million are currently spending $1 million or more building the required infrastructure to make it happen.

The information was revealed in Deloitte’s “Merchants Getting Ready For Crypto” report released in collaboration with PayPal on June 8.

A large majority, around 85%, of the surveyed merchants said they anticipate that cryptocurrency payments will be ubiquitous in their respective industries in five years.

The survey polled 2,000 senior executives at U.S. retail organizations between Dec 3 and Dec 16, 2021 when crypto prices were still riding high, but the results have only just been revealed. The executives were distributed equally among the cosmetics, digital goods, electronics, fashion, food and beverages, home and garden, hospitality and leisure, personal and household goods, services, and transportation sectors.

Small to medium sized companies are also getting into the acts with 73% of retailers with revenues between $10 million and $100 million investing between $100,000 to $1 million to support the needed infrastructure.

*Source: Merchants Getting Ready for Crypto: Merchant Adoption of Digital Currency Payments* *Survey*

According to Deloitte the spending won’t stop there and is only expected to increase over 2022. More than 60% of retailers said they expect budgets of more than $500,000 to enable crypto payments in the next 12 months to December.

Consumers push for crypto payments

Consumer interest is driving merchant adoption with 64% of merchants signalling their customers have expressed significant interest in using crypto for payments. Roughly 83% of retailers expect interest to increase or significantly increase over 2022.

Nearly half expect their adoption of cryptocurrency will improve the customer experience, around the same amount believe it will increase their customer base and 40% hoped their brand woudl be perceived as “cutting edge”.

Retailers optimistic on digital currencies

Of the retailers already accepting cryptocurrency, 93% have reported a positive impact on their customer metrics.

Carriers and challenges to adoption cited by merchants include the security of the payments system (43%) changing regulations (37%), volatility (36%) and a lack of a budget (30%).

The complexity of integrating cryptocurrencies with legacy systems and the complexity of integrating multiple cryptos was the greatest challenge according to 45%.

Deloitte said it expects “continued education” would create further clarity for regulators, allowing wider adoption across a broader set of products and services.

Taco tokens: Chipotle adds crypto payments via Flexa

June 2, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

Nearly 3,000 Chipotle restaurants across the U.S. will accept 98 cryptocurrencies as the Mexican-style fast food chain partners with Flexa to support crypto payments.

The popular Mexican fast food chain Chipotle is now accepting cryptocurrency payments through digital payment provider Flexa at all of its over 2,950 United States based restaurants.

Flexa announced the partnership on June 1st which will see Chipotle accept all the 98 cryptocurrencies Flexa currently supports including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and seven U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins including USD Coin (USDC). Chipotle's website does not contain any information on the announcement however.

Bitcoin, but make it **burritos.**

We’re delighted to share that @ChipotleTweets is now accepting payments in #bitcoin, #ether, #dogecoin, and more, exclusively through Flexa. https://t.co/W0ktwPX7i3
— Flexa (@FlexaHQ) June 1, 2022

The fast food giant is the latest Flexa partner joining other large businesses such as cinema operator Regal Theaters and Bancoagrícola, El Salvador’s largest financial institution where Flexa enables both retail and merchant Bitcoin transactions for the bank's customers.

Chipotle has briefly experimented with cryptocurrencies in the past. In April 2021 to celebrate National Burrito Day it gave away $100,000 worth of Bitcoin along with free burritos and claimed it was the first U.S. restaurant brand to offer a crypto giveaway.

For the so called “chiptocurrency” giveaway Chipotle partnered with former Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas, creating a game where players guessed a code possibly winning either a burrito or up to $25,000 worth of Bitcoin.

The game parodied Thomas’ experience of losing over 7,000 BTC due to forgetting the password for his crypto wallet which today would be worth over $208 million.

Other fast food names have explored or signaled interest in crypto and metaverse applications for their brands. Burger King partnered with trading platform Robinhood in Nov 2021 and gave away free Dogecoin (DOGE) BTC and ETH with meal purchases.

McDonald’s, known for poking fun at crypto Twitter, filed multiple trademark applications in February including plans for “a virtual restaurant featuring actual and virtual goods” in the Metaverse and “operating a virtual restaurant featuring home delivery.”

With crypto adoption in the U.S. remaining high despite market turbulence merchants have expressed desire to implement payment solutions to capture the growing interest.

A Crypto.com global survey of merchants released in February showed only 4% were already accepting cryptocurrency payments, but nearly 60% of merchants responded with an interest in accepting crypto payments within the next year.

Although enthusiasm from merchants overall was high only around 25% of the hospitality industry respondents were keen on crypto payment adoption.

Developing countries love the Metaverse, rich nations not keen: WEF survey

May 26, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Developing countries have more than double the amount of people positive that the Metaverse will impact their lives and they'd use it daily in comparison to developed countries.

Excitement for the Metaverse and virtual or augmented reality (VR/AR) is much greater in developing countries than in high-income countries according to a survey conducted for the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Market research firm Ipsos released the results of the survey on May 25 showing the concept is now widely recognized: 52% of more than 21,000 adults surveyed across 29 countries are familiar with the Metaverse and 50% have positive feelings about engaging with it in daily life.

China, India, Peru, Saudi Arabia, and Colombia were the top five countries where two-thirds or more of respondents said they had positive feelings towards it.

China had the highest, with 78% harboring positive feelings toward using a metaverse daily followed by India at 75%.

*Feelings by country of engaging in a metaverse in daily life, darker areas indicate higher percentage of positive feelings in that region. Source: Ipsos*

The lowest scoring countries with less than one-thirds of respondents positive about the Metaverse were also countries with the highest incomes.

Japan scored the lowest with just 22% exhibiting positive feelings followed by the United Kingdom (26%), Belgium (30%), Canada (30%), France (31%), then Germany (31%).

Interestingly the concept was less familiar in those high income countries too, with fewer than 30% in France, Belgium and Germany.

Turkey was most familiar with the Metaverse at 86%, followed by India (80%), China (73%) and the higher income country of South Korea (71%). Poland scored the lowest at 27%.

Respondents were also surveyed on the areas of life they agree the Metaverse will impact the most. Developing countries such as South Africa, China and India agreed areas like virtual learning, entertainment, digital socializing and even applications like remote surgery would make an impact on people’s lives.

Again respondents from high income Japan, Belgium and France had the lowest percentages of those who agreed that Metaverse applications would significantly change people’s lives.

Developing countries seem to be more enthusiastic about crypto and blockchain across the board, according to an April report from cryptocurrency exchange Gemini which pointed out half of respondents in India, Brazil and the Asia Pacific region purchased their first cryptocurrency in 2021.

The report made the case that inflation and currency devaluation are the drivers of crypto adoption in those regions stating that residents of countries that experienced 50% or more currency devaluation were five times more likely to plan to purchase crypto over countries that experienced less inflation.

Chile puts CBDC plans on hold until end of 2022 to undertake more analysis

May 12, 2022 Coin Telegraph

CBDC

Chile’s planned start to its digital peso rollout in early 2022 has been held back while its central bank conducts more analysis to inform a new report by the end of the year.

The Central Bank of Chile has delayed its plans for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) saying the issuance of a digital Chilean peso requires a deeper analysis of the benefits and risks, promising a new report towards the end of the year.

A report from the bank published on May 11 included a preliminary evaluation of a Chilean CBDC and explored the country’s current payment system along with the benefits, risks, and principles of issuing a digital peso.

The bank stated whilst the current payment system “works adequately” and has been able to “adapt well to recent challenges”, a CBDC would enhance and mitigate any risks of digital transformation, adding:

“A CBDC would contribute to achieving a competitive, innovative and integrated payment system that is inclusive, resilient and protects people's information.”

Regarding issuing a digital peso the bank considers that there isn’t enough information to make a final decision and will “carry out a series of seminars, presentations and meetings with different counterparts” to inform the new report.

In September 2021 Chile’s central bank said it would create a strategy with proposals and options for a rollout of a CBDC in early 2022 and formed a working group to study the potential digital peso.

The bank outlined its concern regarding crypto adoption in the country citing the potential for crypto’s use in money laundering, illicit activities and the ability to disrupt banks access to finances if used as an alternative to bank deposits.

“The issuance of a CBDC is also a good alternative to face the challenges associated with the potential massification of so-called virtual currencies, which, although for now they have a very small role in the payment system, could alter the functioning of the financial market and the transmission of monetary policy if its use becomes widespread.”

Chile sits 18th in the world for cryptocurrency adoption in 2021 according to figures from Statista with 14% of Chilean respondents saying they owned or used crypto that year, it also marks Chile as the fourth largest user of crypto in South America.

Chile doesn’t prohibit the use and trade of cryptocurrencies but it joins other South American countries in its concern over crypto. In early May the central bank of its neighbor Argentina stepped in to stop two banks from offering crypto services saying it needed to “mitigate the risks crypto poses”.

Brazil is also eyeing regulation with a bill circulating since 2015 with the aim to create a regulatory agency to oversee the crypto market moving closer to approval as of mid-April.

Crypto Adoption

Consumers push for crypto payments

Retailers optimistic on digital currencies

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