Technocrats and politicians reflexively justify power grabs by citing external threats. That authoritarian tendency has found an improbable exponent in Jon Cunliffe. This respected deputy governor of the Bank of England recently launched a programme to develop a digital pound. The central bank anticipates overlapping with commercial banks in some key activities while gaining sweeping
admin
Of the hundreds of climbers who set out every year to scale Mount Everest, only about two-thirds reach the summit. EY’s global chair, Carmine Di Sibio, thinks he has better odds for his own ambitious adventure: a plan, known internally as Project Everest, which would split the Big Four accounting firm by spinning off its
The UK government risks squandering a “God-given” opportunity to kickstart the economy and accelerate the shift to renewable energy by failing to reform the planning process for big infrastructure projects, the head of Scottish Power has warned. Keith Anderson, chief executive of Scottish Power, said that almost two years into the energy crisis the government
A Bitcoin (BTC) technology firm and its executives have been indicted for allegedly operating unlicensed crypto kiosks in Ohio thatknowingly benefited from victims of cryptocurrency scams. S&P Solutions, which operated as Bitcoin of America, along with three of its executives, are facing charges of money laundering, conspiracy and other crimes connected to the operation of
Banks in Pakistan plan to launch an electronic platform for know-your-customer procedures that will be operating on a national level. The blockchain-based system will allow them to exchange the personal information of customers through what they describe as a decentralized and self-regulated network. Banks of Pakistan Looking to Employ Blockchain for KYC Checks Pakistan Banks’
Crypto legislation in Australia could be dragged out past 2024 and beyond, with the government seemingly wanting to take its time in order to get a full picture of the industry, internal documents from the government have revealed. The documents, obtained by The Australian Financial Review under freedom of information laws, reportedly reveal that the government
American rapper and actor Snoop Dogg has been revealed as one of the co-founders of a Web3-powered live streaming app called “Shiller” — adding to yet another Web3 partnership for the well-known hip-hop artist. The app is described as a “live broadcast platform” that aims to combine Web3 technology with real-time live-streaming content. The rap star
A U.S. district judge has sentenced a man to three years in prison in a fraudulent cryptocurrency mining scheme. The defendant “misappropriated his victims’ money and failed to provide them with the miners and miner-hosting services they had purchased from him,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Man Sentenced to Prison for Defrauding
Unite the Union, one of the UK’s biggest trade unions, on Sunday announced that ambulance strikes due to take place in England this week had been called off after it agreed to participate in talks with the government over pay. The union, which planned strike action on Monday and Wednesday across seven ambulance trusts, had
A leading business group has called on the UK energy regulator to take urgent action against providers that are found to be mistreating corporate customers, as high gas and electricity costs continue to put many small companies at risk of collapse. In a letter seen by the Financial Times, the Institute of Directors urged Ofgem
Beijing is pressing Hong Kong’s elite to give up their western passports in order to be selected for the Chinese parliament as it tries to stamp out foreign influence and tighten control of the territory. Officials told politicians and tycoons wishing to represent Hong Kong at China’s top decision-making body to renounce passports or travel
The CEO of Ripple Labs has warned of the harm to the crypto industry if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is able to prevail in its lawsuit against Ripple over xrp. He cautioned that the SEC’s enforcement-centric approach to regulating crypto “is not a healthy way to regulate an industry.” Ripple’s CEO on
Central banks show continued demand for gold in 2023, as per a recent report from the World Gold Council (WGC), which noted that the world’s central banks accumulated 31 tons of the precious metal in January. Turkey was the largest gold buyer, adding 23 tons to its central bank’s stash, while the People’s Bank of
The boss of BP’s US business has insisted that the company is sticking with its promised transition away from fossil fuels even though it plans an aggressive oil output increase in the country and is slowing down its planned production cuts elsewhere. BP announced a scaling back of its climate goals last month as it
The United States equities markets made a strong recovery this week but Bitcoin (BTC) failed to follow suit. This means that cryptocurrency investors stayed away and could be worried by the ongoing problems at Silvergate bank. These fears could be what is behind the total crypto market capitalization dropping to nearly $1 trillion. The behavior
One of Credit Suisse’s longest-standing shareholders has sold its entire stake in the scandal-hit Swiss bank after losing patience with its strategy amid persistent losses and a client exodus. US investment manager Harris Associates, whose deputy chair and chief investment officer David Herro was for years among the Swiss bank’s most prominent supporters, owned as
The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Damian Williams, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are requesting “proposed modifications” to the bail conditions of former FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. The SDNY prosecutor is asking the court to prohibit Bankman-Fried from using a smartphone with an internet connection. Instead, the disgraced FTX
Despite a 9.95% increase last week and the all-time high difficulty, bitcoin’s hashrate has averaged around 305 exahash per second (EH/s) over the past 30 days. According to current data, the hashrate has been around 308 EH/s over the past 2,016 blocks. The next difficulty change, set to occur on March 10, is estimated to
In the Russia-Ukraine war, both sides of the conflict have been leveraging cryptocurrencies to achieve the upper hand. Pro-Ukraine causes have collected around $200 million from crypto donations, showing how borderless and uncensorable money could be useful in time of emergency. But the Russian side has taken advantage of crypto too: a total of about
Asking rents climbed by $6, or 0.3%, from January to February. That is the first monthly increase in rents in five months, since they last rose in September 2022, according to a recent survey. The 0.3% increase is only somewhat smaller than the typical February increase of 0.4%, averaged over data from 2016 to 2020,
After a significant spike in February, sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the last seven days are 32.32% lower than last week. Of the 19 different blockchains, Ethereum accounted for $148.56 million out of the total $186.20 million in NFT sales settled this week. NFT Sales Decline Following February Spike in Digital Collectible Purchases During