Tag Archives: Bitcoin

NZZ, November 29, 2016. HTML, PDF. Central banks are increasingly interested in employing blockchain technologies, and they should be. The blockchain threatens the intermediation business. Central banks encounter the blockchain in the form of new krypto currencies, and as the technology underlying new clearing and settlement systems. Krypto currencies bear the risk of “dollarization,” but in the major currency areas this risk is still small. New clearing and settlement systems benefit...

The Economist reports about a new digital currency platform, Zcash. The platform could handle more transactions than for example, Bitcoin. The open-source project backed by outside investors offers confidentiality: Bitcoin obscures the identity of currency owners, but the “blockchain”, the ledger that keeps track of all the coins, is open and can be analysed to see the flows of funds. This is a serious barrier for banks: blockchains could reveal their trading strategies and information...

VoxEU, October 19, 2016. HTML. Central banks are increasingly interested in employing blockchain technologies. The blockchain threatens the intermediation business. Central banks encounter the blockchain in the form of new krypto currencies, and as the technology underlying new clearing and settlement systems. Krypto currencies bear the risk of “dollarization,” but in the major currency areas this risk is still small. New clearing and settlement systems benefit from central bank...

Why Krugman, Roubini, Rogoff And Buffett Dislike Gold By Jan Skoyles  Edited by Mark O’Byrne  A couple of weeks ago an article appeared on Bitcoin Magazine entitled ‘Some economists really hate bitcoin’. I read it with a sigh of nostalgia. As someone who has been writing about gold for a few years, I am used to reading similar criticisms as those bitcoin receives from mainstream economists, about gold. As with...

Submitted by Nicole Foss via The Automatic Earth blog, Part 1 Here. History teaches us that central authorities dislike escape routes, at least for the majority, and are therefore prone to closing them, so that control of a limited money supply can remain in the hands of the very few. In the 1930s, gold was the escape route, so gold was confiscated. As Alan Greenspan wrote in 1966: In the absence of the gold...

Es ist wie auf der Autobahn: Befindet sich voraus ein Stau, versuchen viele, noch schnell die nächste Ausfahrt zu nehmen, um längere Wartezeiten zu vermeiden. Bei der Bankenregulierung ist es ganz genauso. Dauern Abläufe durch eine überbordende Regulierung länger, überlegen sich die Banken etwas Neues. So auch aktuell die Großbanken UBS, Deutsche Bank, Santander und BNY Mellon. Dabei hilft es, wenn man den Zeitgeist aufnimmt und auf...

Submitted by Valentin Schmid via The Epoch Times, Warren Buffett claims that gold is worthless because it doesn’t produce anything. Fair point, but what if the other sectors of the economy also stop producing? “If you think of gold, the only way gold loses is if normal business and private sector cycles come back. If that is the case, gold goes back 100 dollars per ounce. The other outcomes, deflation, stagflation, hyperinflation are good for gold,” said Viktor Shvets,...

The meltup continues with the S&P500 set to open at new all time highs as futures rise 0.2% overnight, with European, Asian stocks higher, as job data pushed MSCI Asia Pacific Index towards highest close since Aug. 2015. Germany, U.K. economic data seen positive, with dollar, oil rising, and gold declining. Global equities advanced with commodities and emerging markets on speculation the U.S. economy is strong enough to sustain growth while only triggering a gradual increase in interest...

In the FT, Philip Stafford reports about a digital currency initiative by the Bank of Canada and commercial banks. It will involve issuing, transferring and settling central bank assets on a distributed ledger via a token named CAD-Coin. But: The Bank of Canada said the experiment was a proof-of-concept and confined to interbank payment systems. … “None of our experiments are to develop central-bank issued e-money‎ for use by the general public.”

A chart-up from China and Japan. Growth of Chinese industrial production, retail sales, fixed asset investment is at lows not seen since the Asian financial crisis. The Yuan is falling. Economic data from Japan is not a lot better. Economic Data from China Then Chinese data largely disappointed. A “meet” in Industrial Production – hovering at multi-year lows… *CHINA MAY INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT RISES 6.0% FROM YEAR EARLIER...