SNB & CHF

Tornado Cash, a decentralized smart contract protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain, was sanctioned in 2022 by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for its role in laundering over US$7 billion worth of illicit funds since 2019. The sanctions initially led to a drop in Tornado Cash use, weakening its ability to provide anonymity. However, transactions on the platform continue, reflecting the mixed effectiveness of sanctions on decentralized...

Two weeks ago, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his campaign for president. In his nearly hour-long speech explaining the decision, Kennedy highlighted what he sees as the three biggest issues facing the United States. The first two—the threat to free speech and the danger of the war in Ukraine—are familiar to anyone following the daily political fights happening online and in the traditional media.But when Kennedy got to his third concern, it was striking how absent...

Have you ever wondered what happens when a banknote is deemed unfit for circulation? Who makes the call to take it out of circulation, and what happens afterwards? We went to the #Swissnationalbank to find out --- swissinfo.ch is the international branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Its role is to report on Switzerland and to provide a Swiss perspective on international events. For more articles, interviews and videos visit swissinfo.ch or subscribe to our YouTube...

A growing number of firms are going bust Keystone-SDA Listen to the article Listening the article Toggle language selector...

Quarantine, lockdowns, social distancing—words I’m sure everyone reading never wants to hear again. Even several years removed, the pain inflicted by Covid-19 and subsequent policy reactions is still fresh in our collective consciousness. I wouldn’t blame anyone for wanting to forget the whole thing, and you wouldn’t be the only one. The authoritarians who violated your freedoms in the name of Covid safety would love for those years—and their mistakes—to be...

According to some “experts,” there is an urgent need to remove cash from the economy. It is held that cash provides support to the “shadow economy” and permits tax evasion. Another justification for its removal is that, in times of economic shocks, which push the economy into a recession, the run for cash exacerbates the downturn—it becomes a factor contributing to economic instability. Moreover, it is argued that, in the modern world, most transactions can be...

A banknote's life is not eternal: tears, stains and other imperfection make it unfit for circulation after some time, but how damaged has a banknote to be in order to be taken out of circulation? Who decides whether a banknote can still be used for payment? In Switzerland, a banknote's life is a perfect circle because it ends where it started: at the Swiss national bank. We've met with Peter Eltschinger, Advisor in the Cash division, to understand what happens at the end of a banknote's...

Send us a text (https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/915097/open_sms) Conflict-related sexual violence has existed for as long as war itself – forever. “It is a weapon of war. I would say it’s a weapon of mass destruction. It is really maximising harm,” says Esther Dingemans, Executive Director of the Global Survivors Fund. In Inside Geneva’s final summer profile, we talk to a woman working to support survivors of sexual violence…from...

Last month, in a move to curb another example of government overreach, Representatives Adrian Smith and Chuck Edwards introduced the IRS Overreach Prevention Act. This act aims to prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from continuing its “Direct File” pilot program. The program, which essentially allows the IRS to bypass the normal audit process and file tax liens directly with the courts, is nothing more than a clear violation of taxpayers’ due process rights...

The pharma sector saw growth in Switzerland Keystone-SDA Listen to the article Listening the article Toggle language selector...