1/The BIS and the Bank of England shared the results of a very impressive retail #CBDC pilot called Project Rosalind. 

#Bitcoin maximalists will have a heart attack but central banks will rejoice. 

Too busy to read the 35+ pages of the report? Here are the key takeaways:

🧵👇 2/ The project is named after British scientist Rosalind Franklin, whose work was key on DNA sequencing.

The goal was to explore practical features of a retail CBDC and how APIs could enable to interact with private sector providers to safely provide retail payments.

Just read the 130+ pages of the SEC‘s 13 charges against Binance. 

Here are the 10 observations that I found interesting and that can be insightful. 

🧵👇 1/ SEC alleges that Binance did not conduct any KYC for any withdrawal of up to 2 BTC a day until Aug 2021. 

Biggest risk is the AML or sanctions risk as all is needed is one transaction with a sanctioned entity.

Just read the #CFTC legal complaint against #Binance.

If you are too busy to read the 70 pages+ legal filing, here are some key takeaways you need to know: 

🧵 1/ the @CFTC states that #Bitcoin, #Ethereum and #Litecoin are commodities. This is interesting considering that SEC chair @GaryGensler said only a couple of days ago that he believes Ethereum is a security.

1/ Five things you need to know about the Ethereum #Merge.

Time for a 🧵 👇 2/ The Ethereum network is currently undergoing a massive and exciting new revamp called the Merge (originally called Ethereum 2.0), which is officially scheduled to take place on September 19.

But why are these upgrades necessary in the first place?

1/ Is Bitcoin mining making a comeback in China despite the ban? How did the U.S. state of Georgia overtake Texas as America’s Bitcoin mining hub? And what is happening with Bitcoin mining in Russia and Kazakhstan?

Time for a thread 🧵 👇 2/ As recently as May 2021, China was the uncontested global leader in Bitcoin mining, with over 65% of the global Bitcoin hashrate.

1/ This past weekend was the 12-year anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day, which marked the first time that Bitcoin was exchanged for physical goods.

But what exactly happened on that date 12 years ago? And how did the transaction take place?

Time for a thread 🧵 👇 2/ On May 22, 2010, Bitcoin enthusiast Laszlo Hanyecz posted online a receipt of the first documented purchase of goods in Bitcoin: two pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoin, the equivalent of US$41 at the time.

But 12 years later, those 10,000 Bitcoins are worth over $304 million!

1/ Ever wonder how the invention of coinage gave rise to two of humanity's biggest vices?

Time for a thread! 🧵👇 2/ Based on texts from the Greek writer Herodotus, it is now commonly accepted that the Lydians, who ruled over a vast kingdom located in what is today western Turkey, minted the first coins sometime around 630 BC.

1/ Did you ever wonder where some of the most commonly-used terms in the world of finance and banking originated, like bank, algorithm, and million/billion/trillion?

Time for a thread! 🧵👇 2/ Many of these terms actually originated during the Renaissance, in which Italian bankers took a pioneering approach to push the practice of banking forward.

1/ A major milestone in the history of money took place last week. On April 5, 1933, FDR signed Executive Order 6102, which placed extreme limitations on gold ownership in the U.S.

What catalyzed this move? And what was its broader impact?

Time for a thread 🧵👇 2/ Upon entering office, FDR attempted to dramatically increase federal spending so as to stimulate the economy, which was rapidly sinking following the 1929 stock market crash.

1/ Last week the UK government announced that they want the country to become a global crypto hub. What does this mean? Who are the winners and losers? And what is the broader impact this will have on the crypto ecosystem?

Time for a thread 🧵👇 2/ A big development occurred on April 4 when John Glenn, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, gave a keynote at the Innovate Finance Global Summit that layed out in a detailed speech what the government is focusing on.

Today is another historic milestone for #Bitcoin and the #crypto ecosystem with the listing of the first Bitcoin #ETF in the US.

What is the importance of this new Bitcoin ETF and what may be it’s impact?

Time for a thread 🧵 Today the Pro Shares Bitcoin Strategy ETF was listed on the NYSE under ticket #BITO

This is a moment the crypto ecosystem has been waiting for many years.

Whilst the future of money and #crypto is very exciting, the history of money is equally interesting.

For example, cattle played a very important role as a form of #money throughout history.

Time for a thread. A good example of its impact is its use today in modern European languages.

The word pecuniary, which means "related to money," is derived from the Latin pecuniarias, meaning "wealth in cattle."

El Salvador recognising #Bitcoin as legal tender is an important milestone.

Here are my personal thoughts on some the potential (including unintended) consequences of this news. Time for a thread!

#BitcoinMiami #BitcoinMiami2021 #cryptocurrencies Background

Lets not forget that El Salvador has 6.4m ppl with 70% unbanked, 20% living in extreme poverty and 16% of GDP consisting of remittances, mainly the US.

Also, the country uses the U.S. Dollar as its legal currency since 2001 and ⅔ of exports go the US.

The Bank of England @bankofengland just issued an excellent paper on retail Central Bank Digital Currencies and proposes a new form of money which would enable to make electronic payments using central bank money.

If you just have 1 minute, this is what you need to know: 1. BofE proposes to issue a UK CBDC, a digital pound sterling and allow anyone to hold an electronic form of central bank money - similar to a digital banknote. This would be a risk-free asset as does not involve any counterparty risk to traditional banks.