For the blockchain and cryptocurrency world, the biggest news for the week may be that Japan is considering the launch of a digital version of the yen (JPY). Politicians from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party plan to propose an issue of Japan's own digital currency. According to a Reuters report on Friday, around 70 lawmakers from the party believe a digital yen is needed to counter the rise of Facebook's (NASDAQ: FB) Libra and China's digital yuan (RMB). Norihiro Nakayama, parliamentary vice minister for foreign affairs, stated: "China is moving toward issuing digital yuan, so we'd like to propose measures to counter such attempts. Reuters reported that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Parliament the government will work with the Bank of Japan to study digital currencies and methods of improving the yen for settlement. The group of lawmakers plans to submit the proposal next month.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
The World Economic Forum (WEF) created a new international consortium to design a governance framework for cryptocurrencies like stablecoins. The WEF announced on Friday the consortium to bring together financial institutions, government representatives, developers, and other community members to determine and draft governance around cryptocurrencies in order to achieve the goal of financial inclusion. WEF founder and chairman Klaus Schwab stated that digital currencies are a "key area of interest for the Forum." He added that WEF hopes the consortium will "catalyze the conversations needed to inform a robust framework of governance for global digital currencies." The new consortium features membership from several central banks of developing nations, as well as the Bank of England Governor Mark Carney and several non-governmental organizations. The consortium news came days after WEF's blockchain lead Sheila Warren and project specialist Sumedha Deshmukh revealed a "Blockchain Bill of Rights" outline.
Pornhub has added new performer payment options including the Tether (USDT) stablecoin, two months after PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) dropped its support for the Canadian adult video giant. On Thursday, Pornhub announced actors can be paid in Tether and recommended the TRONlink wallet for TRON (TRX) payments. In June 2018 TRON and Pornhub started a partnership allowing acceptance of the TRX token for content. Pornhub also added support for adult industry-focused Cosmo Payment, which provides prepaid cards that can send funds. For performers in Australia and Puerto Rico, the firm also added direct deposits as a payment option. Pornhub previously noted over 100,000 performers relied on PayPal for their livelihoods, and the new move to add more payment options could help adult performers better deal with the PayPal freeze and lead to higher crypto and stablecoin use.
Crypto prices ended this week largely flat at about $237 billion. For the majors, Bitcoin SV (BSV), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and EOS made gains, while Stellar (XLM) and Ripple (XRP) posted small losses. In the top 100, the biggest losers were Horizen (ZEN), down 11%, Crypterium (CRPT), down 10%, and Terra (LUNA), down 10%. The biggest gainers were MaidSafeCoin (MAID), up 35%, Nervos Network (CKB), up 27%, and Swipe (SXP), up 23%. Next week traders will see which direction crypto goes.
The author does not hold any positions in any of the securities above.