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Former Chinese central banker says digital yuan ‘usage has been low’

December 30, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Adoption

A former China central banker said cumulative e-CNY transactions only crossed $14 billion in two years, adding the results were “not ideal.”

A former official of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, has expressed disappointment that China’s digital yuan is seeing little use.

Xie Ping, a former PBOC research director and current finance professor at Tsinghua University, made critical public comments about China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) at a recent university conference, according to a Dec. 28 Caixin report.

Xie noted that cumulative digital yuan transactions had only crossed $14 billion (100 billion yuan) in October, two years after launch. “The results are not ideal,” he said, adding that “usage has been low, highly inactive.”

Despite the government’s rapid expansion of the trials and new wallet features to try to attract users, a January PBOC report stated that only 261 million users had set up an e-CNY wallet.

This compares to around 903.6 million people that utilize mobile payments in China, according to a 2021 China UnionPay report.

The former central banker said the use case of e-CNY “needs to be changed” from its current use as a cash substitute and opened to other uses such as the ability to pay for financial products or connected to more payment platforms to boost adoption.

He compared the digital yuan to other third-party payment systems in the country such as WeChat Pay, Alipay, and QQ Wallet, which allow for investments, lending or loans. He said they “have formed a payment market structure that has met needs for daily consumption.”

Some third-party financial apps are e-CNY compatible but see little use, as Xie said “people are used to” using the original service and change “is difficult.”

Such criticism of Chinese government initiatives is rare from former officials and signals the country may be seriously struggling to gain traction on its CBDC initiative.

The government has rapidly expanded e-CNY trails most recently in December to four new cities. It was previously expanded in September to Guangdong province, its most populous, and three others.

New features were added to the e-CNY wallet app in a bid to attract users in time for Chinese New Year that added functionality to send digital versions of traditional red packets or red envelopes (hongbao) containing money — a popular custom during festivities.

BlockFi files motion to return frozen crypto to wallet users

December 20, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Blockfi

Crypto lender BlockFi has asked a U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the authority to return the crypto held in BlockFi Wallets to users.

Bankrupt crypto lending platform BlockFi has filed a motion requesting authority from the United States Bankruptcy Court to allow its users to withdraw digital assets currently locked up in BlockFi Wallets.

In a motion filed on Dec .19 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of New Jersey, the lender asked the court for authority to honor client withdrawals from wallet accounts as of the platform’s pause on Nov. 10.

The court documents also request permission to update the user interface to properly reflect transactions as of the platform’s pause.

In a widely shared email sent to affected users, BlockFi called the motion an “important step toward our goal of returning assets to clients through our chapter 11 cases," adding

“It is our belief that clients unambiguously own the digital assets in their BlockFi Wallet Accounts.”

According to BlockFi, this motion will not impact withdrawals or transfers from BlockFi Interest Accounts, which remain paused at this time.

The lending platform has also signaled intentions to seek “similar relief from the Supreme Court of Bermuda with respect to BlockFi Wallet Accounts held at BlockFi International Ltd.”

BlockFi International is a subsidiary of the company based in Bermuda which runs its non-U.S. operations.

Crypto blogger Tiffany Fong shared the communication sent to her by BlockFi on Dec. 19, commenting that the embattled firm appears to be moving much faster than Celsius, which filed for bankruptcy over five months ago in July as opposed to BlockFi's bankruptcy filing in November.

WOW, @BlockFi has already filed a motion requesting client withdrawals for assets held in BlockFi Wallet Accounts. S/O to BlockFi for moving exponentially more quickly than @CelsiusNetwork in Ch 11. pic.twitter.com/JvtWzMklNA
— Tiffany Fong (@TiffanyFong_) December 20, 2022

According to the court documents, a hearing to decide if the motion will be granted is scheduled for Jan. 9, 2023.

While a separate hearing regarding wallet accounts held at BlockFi International Ltd is scheduled to go before the Supreme Court of Bermuda on Jan. 13, 2023.

BlockFi halted client withdrawals and requested clients not to deposit to BlockFi wallets or Interest Accounts on Nov. 11, citing a lack of clarity around FTX.

By Nov. 28, BlockFi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey for the company and its eight subsidiaries. BlockFi International filed for bankruptcy with the Supreme Court of Bermuda on the same day.

Israeli court rules authorities can seize crypto in 150 blacklisted wallets

December 19, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Over 150 crypto wallets blacklisted for alleged links to the funding of terror groups can now be drained of all funds following a ruling by an Israeli court.

Tel Aviv's Magistrate Court has reportedly issued a ruling allowing Israel's government to seize all the crypto in more than 150 digital wallets that it hablacklisted for allegedly funding terrorist groups.

According to a Dec. 18 local Israeli media report, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz says the court's Dec. 15 ruling has already allowed authorities to seize a further $33,500 from digital wallets linked to the Islamist militant group Hamas.

Prior to the court ruling, Israeli authorities had only been legally allowed to seize digital assets with direct links to terrorist activity but not additional funds in the same wallets. In December 2021, authorities seized $750,000 from the wallets.

The de facto ruling authority of Palestine's Gaza Strip since 2007, Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization in whole or in part by several countries and international blocs including the United States, European Union, Israel and the United Kingdom.

Starting in January 2019, Hamas began appealing to its supporters to send funds using Bitcoin (BTC) as a means to combat sanctions and financial isolation.

Gantz signed an order on July 9, 2021, authorizing security forces to seize crypto accounts with alleged ties to the militant wing of Hamas.

Authorities disclosed at the time the accounts contained Tether (USDT), Ether (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), XRP (XRP), Binance Coin (BNB), Zcash (ZEC), Litecoin (LTC) and other altcoins.

In Februa, 30 crypto wallets from 12 exchange accounts linked to Hamas were seized by Israeli authorities as well.

The exact value of the crypto assets seized was not publicly revealed.

Crypto has been shown to have a relatively minor role in fundraising for terrorist groups. Early in 2022, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis determined only a small portion of crypto funds are used in criminal activity.

Bank of England opens applications for ‘proof of concept’ CBDC wallet

December 12, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bank of England

The bank requires the wallet to execute basic features such as transacting value and requesting payments and set its budget at nearly $255,000.

The Bank of England (BOE) is seeking a “proof of concept” for a wallet that will be able to hold a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

On Dec. 9, the BOE posted a request for applications on the United Kingdom government's Digital Marketplace, a service where government organizations can solicit work for digital projects.

Simple guidelines for what the proof-of-concept wallet would have to achieve were outlined, with the wallet seemingly only needing to offer basic functionality such as a signup process, a way to update details, and show balances and transactions amongst other requirements such as displaying notifications.

Of course, the wallet also has to demonstrate it can be loaded and unloaded with a CBDC along with being able to request peer-to-peer payments through an account ID or QR code and can be used to pay online with businesses.

Key deliverables for the project are to create a mobile app for iOS and Android, a website for the wallet, an example merchant website and the back-end infrastructure to serve the wallet website and apps while also storing user data and transaction history.

“No work has been done” on a CBDC sample wallet the bank said, and it “will not develop a user wallet itself.”

The stated aims of the project are to “explore the end-to-end user journey” as the BOE seeks to “sharpen functional requirements for both the Bank and private sector” along with making the CBDC product “more tangible for internal and external stakeholders.”

A budget of $244,500, or 200,000 British pounds, for an expected five-month project was set for the proof-of-concept with the BOE slated to evaluate five suppliers. There were no applications at the time of writing.

The BOE has previously stated it is seeking to launch a CBDC by at least 2030.

The sample wallet is supportive of the BOE’s work as part of Project Rosalind, a joint experiment it’s carrying out with the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub aimed at creating prototypes of an application programming interface (API) for a CBDC. The proof-of-concept wallet will also be test implemented with the Rosalind API.

On Dec. 9, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, shared a number of reforms to Britain’s financial services sector which included consulting on proposals for the establishment of a CBDC.

Sanctioned Russian Bank Tests In-app Operations With Digital Rubles

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