NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 29: Sir Tim Berners-Lee auctioned the source code for the World Wide Web, which was given to the world for free, as an NFT at Sotheby's on June 29, 2021 in New York City. The auction raised $5.4 million which Berners-Lee said would be donated to charity.

Noam Galai | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

This Giving Tuesday, philanthropy is undergoing a tech revolution. NFTs, known for pushing the art and entertainment industries forward, are innovating in charitable giving as well, and some of the crypto community's biggest bulls and earliest backers are getting on board.

Gemini, the cryptocurrency company founded by bitcoin billionaires Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, unveiled in February a "Give Back with Crypto'' feature, giving Gemini wallet holders the opportunity to donate to over 300 nonprofits, courtesy of a three-year-old platform named The Giving Block. The Giving Block provides the technology stack to connect the crypto community with the philanthropic community, meaning that Gemini wallet holders, FTX users, and all of The Giving Block's other partners can donate any one of dozens of cryptocurrencies directly to a nonprofit of their choosing.

The Giving Block has become one of the mainstays in crypto charitable giving, partnering with dozens of platforms and exchanges and hundreds of charities. And, trendy as they are, the logistics and tax implications of crypto donations aren't all that different from stock donations.

Donating cryptocurrency isn't new; United Way was one of the first and largest nonprofits to start accepting bitcoin donations in 2014. Edwin Goutier, vice president of innovation for United Way, told CNBC that back then, "We saw a growing thriving community of individuals who were passionate as well as a growing base of wealth."

Today, Goutier sees a similar rise with NFTs.

Jack Dorsey famously sold his first tweet as an NFT and donated the proceeds to charity earlier this year, and CNBC's own 'Haines Bottom' NFT sold at auction for over $61,000 just a few months later. The Winklevii haven't slept on the NFTs for philanthropy model either. To commemorate the 13th anniversary of the bitcoin white paper, Gemini displayed over 100 phrases from the paper on a former CNN billboard in NYC's Columbus Circle. Each phrase sold as an NFT on the Gemini-owned Nifty Gateway, and all proceeds were donated.

If donating cryptocurrency is akin to donating stock, Nifty Gateway COO Patrick McLaren says donating NFTs is analogous to donating physical goods, like a traditional piece of art or a similar high-value collectible. And, McLaren says, it's in the DNA of the crypto community. "I recall when the blockchain industry was just becoming an industry, and it was all happening very, very quickly, it always struck me how much people wanted to give back."

Venture capitalist and longtime cryptocurrency optimist Bill Tai saw the charitable potential in NFTs early on. He was Zoom's first investor and an early Twitter and Tweetdeck backer, but he's also backed DapperLabs, the company behind NBA TopShot and CryptoKitties. In 2018, he commissioned what eventually became the first NFT for charity: Honu Kitty, a part cat, part turtle that yielded $25,000 for marine conservation. Now three years later, Tai has set up Metagood, an NFT marketplace that enables donations for each NFT drop.Metagood's investors include Owen Wilson; Richard Branson's children Holly and Sam Branson; Charlie Lee, inventor of Litecoin; and Woody Harrelson.

Metagood is one of many social impact NFT projects to launch this year. Binance launched the NFT for Good collection over the summer, benefiting charities for children. OpenSea has hosted charitable drops, and DoinGud, an NFT marketplace with a donation requirement for each sale, launches for the public on Tuesday.

The charitable opportunity in crypto and NFTs isn't occurring without a related opportunity for the new platforms to make money. While many in crypto emphasize community as the industry's standout feature, more use of crypto means a bigger market overall. "Any time you have a community of interest, you have the ability to create commerce, and a currency," Tai said.

The NFT donation appeal for charities, and for donors, lay less in the novelty of the blockchain and more in its long term impact. The royalties that attracted the likes of Steve Aoki, Kings of Leon, and Gary Vaynerchuk to the NFT ecosystem are also attracting nonprofits who see the NFT's secondary and tertiary markets as opportunities for donations in perpetuity.

Built on the Polygon blockchain, DoinGud allows artists to determine how much of the token's proceeds go to charity, as well as which charity the sales will benefit. The platform is, for now, allowing no less than a 5% allocation in the primary market, and the donations from the secondary market sales are determined in each NFT's individual smart contract. The default, says co-founder and curator Kyle Gordon, is a donation of 2.5% in the secondary market.

Since NFTs, like traditional art and collectible assets, accrue value over time, Goutier says the potential in this new donation model is in part why the nonprofit agreed to work with DoinGud. "We'll have the opportunity to receive a portion of secondary market sales," he said.

As the original NFT increases in value, so does the donation, and the nonprofit first chosen by the creator benefits with every transaction, forever. The benefits are monetary, certainly, but also cultural. With each transaction, the nonprofit reups its relevance. "It's a sustainable donation model," Goutier said.

For artists, NFT profits are typically blunted by notorious gas and transaction fees, and donating a cut of proceeds may not seem feasible for newer creators. To combat that, DoinGud has instead put gas and minting fees on the collectors, offering creators a chance to retain 95% of their sale's proceeds.

Like all things crypto, though, it's still early days. While United Way has accepted crypto donations for seven years, cryptocurrencies still comprise an extremely small amount of its $4.8 billion raised annually Goutier estimates less than 1%. NFTs may very well help raise that number, but nonprofits are now considering other implications of their corporate wallets. "Do we keep crypto on our balance sheet?" Goutier said.

The Giving Block has launched its own version of Giving Tuesday: NFTuesday, scheduled for December 7, in conjunction with the Sotheby's auction benefiting Sostento, a nonprofit for health-care workers. The two are touting the upcoming event as the "biggest NFT charity auction ever."

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On Giving Tuesday, cryptocurrency and NFT backers are bullish on donations - CNBC

Art from Coinbase's digital gift cards.

Against a backdrop of persistent economic uncertainty, rising inflation and global supply chain issues, what if you could find a holiday gift that's highly available and easy to give? And what if that gift also straddled the line between the strategic and the strange? Yes, we're talking about cryptocurrency.

Though most Americans know about cryptocurrency, only a small percentage of them actually hold crypto. If you're one of the few, here's your chance to blaze the trail for your friends and family.

Unlike in the past, it's now simple to give the gift of cryptocurrency -- even to those who don't know the difference between a hardware and software wallet or don't have an account on a cryptocurrency exchange. And you don't even have to give a whole bitcoin, which currently costs more than $50,000. You can send minute fractions of a cryptocurrency, starting at less than $1.

We'll focus here on the big, popular players that have made it simple to securely give cryptocurrency to friends and family -- even if you or the recipient have never dabbled in digital money before.

An increasing number of mainstream financial apps, including PayPal and Venmo, have already made it relatively easy to buy and send cryptocurrency -- though some charge higher fees than crypto-focused apps and exchanges. And not all of them make it easy to send cryptocurrency as a gift, especially to people who don't already have accounts.

In March, Cash App debuted a new feature that made it possible for users to send bitcoin to anyone with a phone number or email address. Today, Coinbase unveiled a similar feature, making it easy for account holders to send bitcoin, ether and several other cryptocurrencies to anyone with an email address -- regardless of whether they already have a Coinbase account.

There are other ways to give cryptocurrency as a gift without using a centralized exchange and financial app. Those will require more technical know how. And regardless of how you give the gift, it's worthwhile to provide your recipient with a disclaimer: The world of cryptocurrency can be a wild place wherescams and misinformationare common.

To send cryptocurrency as a gift, you'll need a Coinbase account. Starting today, you'll be able to access the gift feature on the company's app and website. On the menu on the left side of the screen, select "send a gift."

The new gifting feature allows you to send five different assets -- bitcoin, ether, litecoin, bitcoin cash, stellar lumen -- to anyone, including people who don't yet have a coinbase account. All you need is their email address. The email contains directions about how to set up a Coinbase account and claim the gift. The email also includes a digital card featuring "crypto-minded artwork." There are no fees beyond the cost of the cryptocurrency you are gifting. If the recipient already has an account, you can send themany of the assets Coinbase supports(there are more than 100).

Coinbase allows you to cancel the transaction at any time, until the recipient creates their account and claims the cryptocurrency. If the person doesn't create an account within 30 days, the transaction is cancelled automatically.

Cash App is a popular money transfer service owned by Block, formally known as Square. One of Cash App's features is the ability to send bitcoin to other people. This app makes it quick and easy to gift crypto.

However, your choice of cryptocurrency is limited to bitcoin. At the moment, Cash App doesn't support any other assets, which makes the platform somewhat restrictive for cryptocurrency enthusiasts. But if the recipient is new to digital currency, then bitcoin is likely the one asset they might know.

To send bitcoin to another Cash App user, you'll need the person's address on Cash App, which is called a $CashTag. Once you have the $CashTag in hand, navigate to the bitcoin tab from the home screen. Then tap the airplane button and select the amount you want to send and the person to send it to.

If the person you're sending to doesn't have a Cash App account, you can send bitcoin to them using their phone number or email address. The person who receives your gift will then be prompted to create an account and accept the bitcoin. If the recipient doesn't create an account within 14 days, the bitcoin will go back to your account.

You can send as little as $1 in bitcoin using this service. You can find the full directions on the Cash App Website.

Alternatively, or in addition, you can give someone a cryptocurrency wallet as a gift -- with or without anything in it. These are hardware wallets that plug into your computer via USB port. If you do decide to set up a hardware wallet for someone as a gift, make sure to follow the manufacturer instructions closely and keep track of the key phrases once you set the wallet up. Trezor and Ledger are two reputable manufacturers that offer models ranging from $60 to $200.

Generally, the IRS focuses its interest on gifts of $15,000 or more. So, if you're just sending $50 in bitcoin to your cousin, you shouldn't have to worry about the tax implications. The IRS has helpful pages on gift taxes and virtual currencies to help you navigate the details. And when it comes to reporting your transactions in April, taxes usually kick in only when you sell or trade.

In this year alone, theprice of a single bitcoinhas fluctuated wildly -- from a low of about $30,000 to an all-time high of more than $65,000 in November. Plenty of people have made money through cryptocurrency speculation, but it's just as easy to lose money. Though it could make a fun gift for the holidays, keep in mind that cryptocurrency assets are highly speculative, and if you buy them, a good rule of thumb is to invest no more than you're comfortable losing. It's also worth noting that cryptocurrency is a common tool inonline scamsand that cryptocurrency transactions -- once completed -- are generally final and irreversible. Once you send some crypto, it's as good asgone forever. Do your homework, be skeptical and have fun.

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Giving cryptocurrency as a gift is easier than you think - CNET

What happened

Early Saturday morning, crypto markets plunged, with mega-cap cryptocurrencies BitcoinandEthereumlosing altitude quickly, crashing by double-digit percentages in less than an hour.

This led to a market-based sell-off, which included top web3 and DeFi cryptocurrency,Polkadot( DOT -6.99% ). As of 11pm ET, Polkadot had lost 9.8% of its value, over the past 24 hours.

Image source: Getty Images.

Polkadot's decline on Saturday generally fell in line with the broader market move. That said, Polkadot did recover approximately 17% from its lows at the time of writing, indicating strong investor support for this web3 cryptocurrency.

Polkadot got its start as a flagship project by the Web3 Foundation, with a focus on becoming a revolutionary blockchain technology aimed at interoperability, scalability, and improved security. For those banking on the future of a fully decentralized internet with the potential for a fully integrated suite of decentralized finance applications built atop this infrastructure, Polkadot remains a top cryptocurrency right now.

Despite today's impressive decline, Polkadot remains the ninth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, for a reason. Investors looking for blockchain projects with truly innovative potential to drive what could be the future of the internet have reason to like how Polkadot is positioned right now.

Accordingly, this dip could be one long-term investors may want to consider buying with Polkadot. Of course, the crypto world is one that's historically been extremely volatile. That's not likely to change any time soon. However, the risk-reward upside with Polkadot does look attractive right now.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis even one of our own helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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Polkadot Plunges 11%-Time to Buy the Dip on This Top DeFi Cryptocurrency? - Motley Fool

A Russian national flag atop the Russian Central Bank headquarters in March 2019.

Elena Nadolinski grew up in Volgograd, Russia playing on the shells of abandoned tanks and decommissioned battleships, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. When she returned there on a recent trip from her new home in Silicon Valley, she says she was struck by how Russias growing authoritarian surveillance continues to impact the very nature of innovation.

Lack of privacy, and having this expectation that I am surveilled and I need to hide what I have because I don't actually have privacy guarantees, has evolved the culture in a way that I think negatively impacts innovation and entrepreneurship in the country, says Nadolinski, speaking from her offices in San Francisco.

To help combat this chilling effect, the 29-year-old founder of anonymous cryptocurrency startup Iron Fish raised $27.6 million in a Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz to help ensure the next generations of Russians and citizens of the growing number of authoritarian states around the world can continue to have a private life, even if all the worlds transactions move to a shared, distributed ledger.

Whats at stake with her work and that of a rising tide of other privacy innovators building with blockchain goes far beyond just what happens in the once-niche world of cryptocurrencies. In fact, it could have ripple effects reaching into the very nature of money, and whether or not online payments of all sortscrypto or fiatretain any sense of offline privacy when paying for goods with cash.

The reason why I'm working on Iron Fish is because right now we're headed in a direction where payments are totally transparent, says Nadolinski. If you are a surveillance-happy state, this is the future you want. And for us, it's kind of a scary future.

With other investors in the Series A including Sequoia Capital, LinkedIn executive chairman Jeff Weiner, billionaire Mets owner, Alan Howard, and more, the firm plans to spend the capital to nearly double its team size, establish a treasury for assigning grants to companies building on the platform and paying legal fees to help assure the process is as compliant as possible.

What theyre not doing though is adding anyone to the board, something, Nadolinski says, is increasingly par-for-the-course with crypto startups relying on a governance model built into the very fabric of the code. If there's an update [network participants] like or don't like, they will either run or not run the updated software, she says. There is, as with any cryptocurrency project, governance by action.

Born to software engineer parents in Volgograd, Russia, Nadolinski remembers her grandmother pointing out the only two buildings that survived World War II in what was then called Stalingrad. After studying in Russia for first and second grade, she moved to the United States and in 2014 received a degree in computer science from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Parlaying a Microsoft internship into her first engineering job at the tech giant, she went on to work on property rental site Airbnbs autocomplete function before discovering crypto.

In 2017, the rising star was invited to a birthday party at Ethereum developer Juan Benets house in Palo Alto, California. Three years earlier, Benet founded Protocol Labs to build technology that could enable a new version of the internet without central servers, called Web 3. In contrast to where she grew up, Nadolinski was struck by the openness of the blockchain developers. Particularly, the developer of Web 3 portal, MetaMask, Dan Finlay, who without even knowing her, helped her debug a smart contract at 3 oclock in the morning. I was like, This feels like a magical open community, she says. Where there's so much potential, and there's so much to build.

A year later, she started working on the original version of Iron Fish, then a privacy preserving cryptocurrency, using the Sapling Protocol, originally developed by Zcash. With early funding from Benet, Forbes 30 Under 30 alums, Jill Carlson of Slow Ventures, Linda Xie of Scalar Capital and others, the cryptocurrency evolved to include a system whereby almost any cryptocurrency can be deposited into a smart contract that wraps it in the same anonymity as Iron Fish itself. Think of it as the secure sockets layer (SSL) of the internet, except instead of vouchsafing for the security of a website, it helps protect the privacy of nearly any cryptocurrency.

Based in San Francisco, the Delaware C Corp currently employs nine people around the world, including six developers. In April 2021, the firm published the early version of its open source code, letting anyone build on the network, which is currently validated by 1,800 node operators. Earlier this month, they opened pre-registrations for an incentivized test network that will reward the validators and other network participants with points that qualified users will eventually be able to redeem for Iron Fishs native currency, iron.

This is at least the sixth investment Andreessen Horowitz has made in crypto privacy startups over the past four years. Most recently, the firm earlier this month led a Series A in Switzerland-based Nym, which uses cryptocurrency, including bitcoin, to reward users who run nodes similar to the Tor Network. $3.1 billion dollars has been invested in privacy startups, according to data site Crunchbase, with more than three-quarters of it over the past four years.

To give an idea of the potential value being placed on privacy, research firm Fortune Business Insights predicts technology that obscures identities will grow into a $17.75 billion industry by 2028, and analysis site ResearchAndMarkets.com estimates the related VPN industry will reach $107 billion by 2027.

If technology like Iron Fishs catches on, it could potentially provide anonymity to more than just cryptocurrencies. Perhaps the largest threat to financial privacy in recent years is the nascent and largely experimental concept of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), where the traditional issuers of government-backed currencies are seeking to leverage the best that their new decentralized competitors have to offer in terms of speed and efficiency.

While everyonefrom the Bank of International Settlements to David Chaum, whose work on electronic money was cited by bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamotohas cited concerns over what this new kind of currency might mean, the second largest economy in the world, China, is slowly rolling out its own digital currency, and dozens of similar projects are in the works.

Supporters of increased transparency say such hybrid cryptocurrencies could undermine terrorist funding and money launderers, while detractors worry about some of the same chilling effects on innovation experienced by Nadolinski. Right now, she says, whether or not you're a believer, disbeliever regulator, builder, whoever, you are inadvertently helping shape that inevitable future of digital payments being cryptocurrency-based.

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Iron Fish Raises $27 Million To Build A Cryptocurrency Beyond The Reach Of Surveillance States - Forbes

serpeblu / Getty Images/iStockphoto

The metaverse is rapidly growing, both in cultural awareness and in financial terms, accelerated by Facebooks Meta name change last month. Since the concept is slowly starting to become more mainstream as several big-name companies are embracing it and some analysts are calling it the next big investment theme.

See: 10 Cheap Cryptocurrencies To BuyFind: Cryptocurrency Predictions for 2022

Igor Tasic, founder of metaverse advisory firm Meta Ventures, says that the metaverse goes beyond VR/AR and technology itself and has the potential to be the ultimate equalizer of the first half of the 21st-century by creating an actual global plaza for people to be included, integrating their physical and digital existence in an authentic hybrid experience.

We are living in a moment of transition in the metaverse. I believe even the way we refer to it will evolve, Tasic told GOBankingRates.

Like in the past, we called the internet the web, Infoway, and now, the cloud. It seems to be more of a natural next step of the internet in which the experiential aspect will take place, he added.

In a note to investors earlier this week, Investment bank Morgan Stanley said that the metaverse a concept that includes the construction of an alternate universe where individuals can model their image to whatever they want to be, and perform real-life tasks such as buying things, gaming with friends, and other activities can fundamentally change the medium through which we socialize with others, according to Bitcoin.com.

But what is the connection between the metaverse and crypto and how does crypto play a role in it?

Sina Kian, VP of Strategy at Aleo, a blockchain platform for fully private applications, told GOBankingRates that crypto is a fundamental part of the metaverse because it allows ownership of digital assets, and ownership will create incentives to invest.

Kian added, however, that one of the greatest threats to the metaverse is the prospect of being captured by an oligopoly, thus recreating the menace of monopolies in the digital world.

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The most important thing that crypto offers is a potential alternative to that world, in which ownership is more decentralized, Kian said.

Phillippe Bekhazi, co-founder and CEO of XBTO Group, a global cryptofinance firm, echoed the sentiment, telling GOBankingRates that crypto is poised to play an immensely important role in the metaverse.

Obviously, there are the emerging technologies, such as NFTs and social tokens, that could be used for everything from playing games and earning money to even serving as incentives for holding virtual concerts for influencers and their fans, Bekhazi said.

What I think is under-appreciated is the role that major cryptocurrencies could play. Digital currencies are primed to be used as a payments system between various parties within a metaverse-like digital world, he continued.

Also, its not beyond the realm of possibility that in some future metaverse, even crypto traders could trade Bitcoin and other crypto assets on a VR/AR-integrated system within the metaverse. In such a scenario, they could bargain in person, in the form of the digital avatars, over what price they would want to trade whichever crypto asset. The possibilities could be limitless, and we are excited to see what comes of this, Bekhazi concluded.

Other experts explain that the metaverse isnt just AR/VR and cartoon avatars. It can be any form of online engagement, from a Zoom call to commenting on your favorite creators social posts, plus anything that gives you presence, engagement and identity in a digital space can be a metaverse, according to Chris Fortier, Vice President of Product at Rally, a blockchain ecosystem that helps creators mint their own social tokens.

In this light, crypto has an important role to play in any metaverse, Fortier told GOBankingRates. Crypto enables radical ownership of tokens but tokens are much more than money.

See: Decentralized Social Media on Solanas Blockchain Could Change How Fast We Enter the MetaverseFind: Twitter Launches Crypto Dedicated Team A Move That Could Make Digital Assets The Currency of the Internet

Rally, for example, lets creators and communities tokenize their time and reward participation in our digital metaverses (both current web and web3 alike). That could mean amplifying a tweet, fulfilling a T-shirt order for a fan or introducing a new community member to crypto. Web3 communities now have the tools to honor and reward that digital labor, he added.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Understanding the Metaverse and How it Relates to Cryptocurrency

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Understanding the Metaverse and How it Relates to Cryptocurrency - Yahoo Finance

Shiba Inu (CRYPTO:SHIB) is the latest cryptocurrency to go viral, skyrocketing over 77,000,000% in the past year. At that pace, you would be a millionaire today if you had invested just $1.30 in Shiba Inu last November. Unfortunately, a repeat performance is highly unlikely, so if you want to invest in cryptocurrency, the best course of action is to pick one with real potential.

For instance, Solana (CRYPTO:SOL) was built with a purpose, and it offers far greater functionality than Shiba Inu. Here's what you should know.

Image source: Getty Images.

Solana was created by Anatoly Yakovenko, a former lead developer of operating systems for the chipmaker Qualcomm. Drawing on that engineering expertise, Yakovenko designed Solana as a developer platform for fast, scalable applications.

Specifically, Solana is a programmable blockchain, meaning it supports smart contracts. That's a fancy term for self-executing computer programs that allow transactions to take place without third-party oversight. To that end, smart contracts form the core of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, tools that allow consumers to lend, borrow, or trade cryptocurrency without going through a bank. And by eliminating the intermediary, DeFi applications promise to cut costs and improve access to financial services.

Currently, the value of Solana that is locked in DeFi applications sits at $14.2 billion, making it the third largest DeFi ecosystem behind Ethereum and Binance. However, Solana has an edge that could eventually propel it to the top of the list. Specifically, it's currently the best performing blockchain in the world, offering throughput of 50,000 transactions per second (TPS) and near-instant finalization times.To put that in perspective, Ethereum currently handles just 30 TPS, and it takes five minutesfor those transactions to be finalized (i.e. permanently incorporated into the blockchain).

More importantly, even if Solana never surpasses Ethereum, its position as the third largest DeFi ecosystem is still an advantage. DeFi services aren't free. Users must pay transaction fees in the form of cryptocurrency to access those services. So if Solana's DeFi ecosystem continues to grow, Solana's price should continue to climb. That's why this cryptocurrency looks like a smart long-term investment.

In August 2020, Shiba Inu made its debut, featuring the canine mascot popularized by Dogecoin. That was no accident. The project's mysterious creator, known as Ryoshi, has promoted the cryptocurrency as the "Dogecoin killer," highlighting its greater publicity and (more importantly) its greater utility. And that's true, in theory.

Shiba Inu is an ERC-20 token, a smart contract built on the Ethereum blockchain. That means it's compatible with the entire Ethereum ecosystem, including a robust array of DeFi applications. However, that compatibility remains theoretical. At this point, Shiba Inu has not been widely integrated into DeFi products, and its utility is still quite limited.

More importantly, Shiba Inu is hardly unique. Hundreds of other ERC-20 tokens exist, and many have far greater functionality. For instance, Tether is designed to track the U.S. dollar, allowing investors to keep money in the cryptocurrency markets while avoiding volatility. And Chainlink is designed to feed real-world data to smart contracts on the blockchain, making it possible to tokenize physical assets (e.g. artwork, real estate).

In short, Shiba Inu's soaring price has been driven by popularity and nothing else. And popularity alone is not a good investment thesis, as it can evaporate overnight. That doesn't mean Shiba Inu's price won't go up from here. It could double tomorrow. But over the long term, Solana looks like the better investment.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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1 Top Cryptocurrency to Buy Instead of Shiba Inu - Motley Fool

Twitter Inc. established a cryptocurrency team by the name of Twitter Crypto with the incentive of transitioning toward the adoption of cryptocurrencies as a regular means of trade and payment just like cash. Software engineer Ted Rynearson was hired to lead this team and push forward strategies that help integrate blockchain technology into the companys platform.

Although the team is reluctant to provide intricate details and information on their plan on pursuing cryptocurrency, they gave implications of their interest in digital currencies. The company sees an opportunity to help creators participate in the promise of an evolving, decentralized internet directly on Twitter, a spokeswoman for Twitter explained.

Twitter adopted the use of cryptocurrencies on its platforms in contemporary ways by allowing users to receive tips with Bitcoin. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has beena long-time fan of Bitcoin,and his interest in cryptocurrencies is even more evident when examining the trades he has made. Dorsey sold his first tweet as a nonfungible token for about $2.9 million earlier, which further demonstrated his interest in incorporating cryptocurrencies into his company as it is slowly but surely integrated into the economy and among average peoples methods of trade.

Blockchain and crypto are unlocking new possibilities that align with our big product bets, including creator monetization and new forms of self-expression, another Twitter spokesperson told Fox Business. This suggests that the company has new ideas as to how it can expand the platforms reach and develop additional strategies to further engage users.

A definite reason why cryptocurrencies are sparking interest among investors and companies is the competitive numbers cryptocurrencies are trading at. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency,recently traded at an all-time high of $68,990.90 per each individual coin. Additionally, the cryptocurrency market is now worth more than $3 trillion, demonstrating the powerful influence of these digital assets. This is more evident when reviewing past performance, as the market has already quadrupled from its 2020 year-end value.

Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are examples of meme coins that are also attracting consumer attention. Ethereum and Solana are leading tokens that trail behind Bitcoin, which currently has the greatest influence and value.

The value of these coins, however, is heavily swayed by public opinion. Leading business figures such as Elon Musk are able to sway the price of cryptocurrencies through a single tweet. Musk, who has expressed his reluctance to invest in Bitcoin due to ethical and monetary issues regarding the mining of the coin back in May, which caused the price of Bitcoin to drop to its lowest level since February.

The integration of digital currencies into the American economy as a means of trade is starting to take hold. The Twitter Crypto group is aresult of the further use of cryptocurrencies in everyday lives. Each development that comes fromRinearson and his teams work is something readers should continue to follow.

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Twitter launches a cryptocurrency team The Ticker - The Ticker

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Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance. CYBER is Motherboard's podcast and reporting on the dark underbelly of the internet.

The iconic Staples Center, home to the Los Angeles Lakers and their cousin the Clippers, will soon be known as the Crypto.com Arena in a deal reportedly worth $700 million.

Four years ago, I wrote a passionate hot take, arguing that the word crypto should not be used to refer to cryptocurrency, but to refer to cryptography, as its been the case in computer science and cybersecurity for more than 20 years.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary is not relenting yet. But for the rest of us, its time to raise a white flag and admit we lost this war. Perhaps, I would even go as far as saying this war was not worth fighting. As Metallica sang many years ago: For a hill, men would kill, why? They do not know.

Crypto is now widely used to refer to cryptocurrency in news media, as well as within the cryptocurrency, blockchain, and decentralized financeor DeFiindustry. Most importantly, everyday, non techie people also use and understand crypto to mean cryptocurrency. Even this very website, which published my defense of crypto meaning cryptography, has started to use the term to refer to cryptocurrency.

And its OK.

I come from a culture where language is prescriptive. I grew up in Spain, where there is an official government-run body, the Real Academia Espaola, whose sole mission is to preserve the correct use of the Spanish language. As part of its mission, the academy establishes and sanctions the supposedly correct meaning of words.

I now see that as the wrong approach. Languages are living things shaped by the people who use them. This approach, antithetical to the prescriptivism discussed earlier, is known as descriptivism.

This is the school of thought that accepts the fact that people now use crypto to mean cryptocurrency. This is now the widespread, common use of the word, and, again, thats OK.

Not everyone is giving up though. Amie Stepanovich, the executive director of the University of Colorados Silicon Flatirons center, made t-shirts that say Crypto. It Means Cryptography.

The t-shirt made by Amie Stepanovich.

I still dont think Ill ever concede that crypto should be used as shorthand for anything but cryptography or its close relatives. In fact, in the term cryptocurrency, its use as a prefix indicates exactly that, Stepanovich told Motherboard in an online chat. Using it instead as a shorthand for a word its a prefix for creates unnecessary ambiguity in language at a time when there are still major global fights about the use of cryptography unencumbered. I, for one, dont plan to ever use crypto as a short for blockchain-based currency and wont recognize its use by others.

Stepanovichs shirt is still very popular among cybersecurity experts, as this thread of people posing with it shows. Ironically, one of the people posing with a Crypto. It Means Cryptography hoodie is none other than computer science veteran Matt Blaze, the former owner of the very Crypto.com URL that took over the Staples Center.

For 25 years, until 2018, Crypto.com was Blazes personal website. After receiving a series of surely copious and tempting offers, Blaze decided to sell it to a company that has the mission to accelerate the worlds transition to cryptocurrency.

I don't think conflating cryptography and digital currency will serve either field well in the long run, particularly as to how they're perceived by the public and policymakers, Blaze wrote at the time. (Blaze declined to comment for this piece and pointed to his 2018 blog post.) Still, there's no doubt that, at this moment in time, the two have become hopelessly intermixed, at least in the minds of the digital money people. That doesn't mean this won't end badly, but it's unarguably where we are right now.

The jury is still out on whether this will end badly, but whats clear is that for most people, crypto means cryptocurrency these days.

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'Crypto' Means Cryptocurrency. We Lost the War, and It's OK - VICE

The ongoing technological revolution has meant that digital money one manifestation of which are cryptocurrencies is upon us. The microeconomic trade-offs are well-known and have been argued. Digital currencies have the potential to spur financial innovation, increase efficiencies through faster and cheaper payments and augment financial inclusion. Conversely, concerns around safety (cyber attacks and fraud), financial integrity (money laundering and evasion of capital controls) and energy usage (outsized energy needs to mine cryptos) are also well-documented. Further, to the extent that privately-issued cryptos currently serve largely as speculative assets, the need for updating consumer protection and regulatory frameworks is also clear.

But even as the micro debate rages, there is much less appreciation of the macro consequences of privately-issued cryptocurrencies. What happens if, over time, cryptos evolve from speculative assets to become viable mediums of exchange? What would this imply for the conduct of monetary, fiscal and exchange rate policies? This piece attempts to put the macro pieces together.

For starters, how would monetary policy be impacted if a private digital currency was competing with fiat currencies? Think of this as dollarisation by another name, but with a crucial difference as enumerated below. Latin America is replete with economies becoming dollarised. As domestic nationals lost faith in their own currency as a store of value, they shifted into and began transacting in US dollars for the security and stability it accorded. What this did was to render domestic monetary policy ineffective, because domestic central banks cannot set interest rates and inject liquidity in a foreign currency. The greater the substitution into US dollars, the lower the potency of monetary policy. In effect, these economies were importing the monetary policy of the US Fed.

Widespread adoption of privately issued digital currencies as a medium of exchange will have much the same impact. The larger the monetary base they cannibalise, the less potent will be domestic monetary policy in responding to business cycle needs and external shocks.

But what are the prospects for widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies as a medium of exchange? The intellectual case for Bitcoin stemmed from the fear of debasement of fiat currencies through an unprecedented expansion of G3 central bank balance sheets after the global financial crisis. Its founders, therefore, preempted fears of debasement by fixing Bitcoins aggregate supply, in the hope it would evolve into a viable alternative medium of exchange. But precisely because aggregate supply is inelastic, demand shocks result in outsized price volatility. This, in turn, renders Bitcoin an inappropriate medium of exchange. Instead, its morphed into a speculative asset.

To get around this problem, Stablecoins have been introduced, whose value is pegged to a fiat currency by maintaining equivalent reserves (think of a currency board exchange rate regime). By providing much greater price stability, these Stablecoins hope to serve as viable mediums of exchange, and have proliferated rapidly in recent years. Does this pose a grave risk to monetary policy? Much will depend on the degree of currency substitution.

As the IMF points out, if cryptos are only used for niche purposes narrow cross-country transfers and remittances which are then quickly converted back into local fiat currencies, the implications for monetary policy will be contained.

Instead, what central bankers and policymakers fear is a more existential challenge to the global monetary system. In a 2019 paper, Brunnermeir, James and Landau raise the prospect of mega tech companies running global e-commerce or social networking platforms issuing their own digital currencies to their global customer base that serves both as a unit of account and a medium of exchange on their platforms. Given the self-reinforcing network externalities involved, adoption would be rapid as digital currencies are bundled with other data and services. We would then have the prospect of digital currencies being transacted on large scales actively competing with fiat currencies.

Brunnermeir et al. posit global economic activity could eventually be re-organised into digital currency areas (DCAs) that run across national boundaries, characterised by their own digital currency and unit of account issued by the network owner, with the size of these DCAs dwarfing national economies.

How would this threaten monetary policy? If these privately issued Global Stablecoins are tied to a fiat currency, the owners of these networks still would not necessarily run independent monetary policy (think currency board again). But if these currencies gain credibility and acceptance over time, there will be every incentive for network owners to break free from fiat currencies pegs to generate monetary discretion.

Once that happens, all bets are off with private network owners effectively running independent monetary policy. From the perspective of a local economy, think of this as dollarisation except that monetary policy is being ceded not to the Fed, but as the IMF warns to a profit-maximising network owner, who may not have any incentive to use monetary policy to smooth shocks or issue emergency liquidity when needed. The fate of economies to respond to shocks, at least in part, would be in the hands of private firms. This would present an existential threat to monetary policy as we know it.

What about fiscal policy? The implications are more straightforward. The greater the substitution into digital currencies the more the loss of seigniorage revenues to governments from the monopoly issuance of fiat currency. Separately, fiscal revenues can also be adversely impacted by the increased tax evasion opportunities that crypto-currencies can facilitate.

To the extent that increased substitution into cryptos reduces the efficacy of monetary policy, the onus on fiscal policy to respond to economic shocks will commensurately rise. This could create challenges in a post-Covid world. The pandemic has left a legacy of elevated public debt around the world. Fiscal policy, especially in emerging markets, will have the least space to act when it is most needed.

Finally, what are the implications for the Rupee? To the extent that cryptos are mined abroad, demand for them whether for transactions or speculative purposes will be akin to capital outflows. In turn, if cryptos begin to get mined onshore, they will induce capital inflows. These dynamics will increase capital account volatility and, to the extent that these cross-border flows circumvent capital flow measures, they de facto increase capital account convertibility, accentuating the policy trilemma that emerging markets confront.

This will also directly impact the currency market. As the 2021 Global Financial Stability Report underscores, there must exist a triangular arbitrage between, say, the local Rupee-Bitcoin market, the Dollar-Bitcoin markets and the Rupee-Dollar market. Consequently, changes in the Rupee-Bitcoin markets will inevitably spill over into the Rupee-Dollar markets for markets to clear.

All told, the macro implications of widespread crypto adoption are complex and interlinked. For now, there is justifiable angst about growing household attraction for cryptos as speculative assets, with its attendant regulatory implications. But the true macro challenge will emerge and compound if and when unbacked private digital currencies are seen as viable mediums of exchange. Thats what policy must anticipate and prepare for.

This column first appeared in the print edition on November 19, 2021 under the title Brace up for cryptocurrency.The writer is Chief India Economist at J.P. Morgan. Views are personal

See the article here:
The monetary, fiscal challenges of cryptocurrency - The Indian Express

Amid growing cryptocurrency euphoria in India, there have been some fast-paced developments on the way forward for digital currencies with RBI governor Shaktikanta Das kicking it off by sounding caution on cryptos.

Cryptocurrencies are a very serious concern from a macro economic and financial stability point of view, Das said a few days ago, while reiterating his stand once again recently, saying, "There are "far deeper issues" involved in virtual currencies that could pose a threat to Indias economic and financial stability."

On the other hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high level comprehensive meeting recently, where he expressed concerns about unregulated crypto markets becoming avenues for money laundering and terror financing.

There was also consensus, during the PM's meet on how to stop advertisements that over-promise and mislead the young investors.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee for Finance has met various stakeholders and experts, a first for the panel on cryptocurrency and related issues. The panel stressed on regulation of cryptos but not completely shutting the door on them.

The members of the Parliamentary panel are said to have wished for govt officials to appear before it and address their concerns. There was a consensus that a regulatory mechanism should be put in place to regulate cryptocurrency. Industry associations and stakeholders were not clear as to who should be the regulator

The Members of Parliament (MPs) have expressed concerns over security of investors money.

Amid all these developments, there are reports that the government may bring cryptocurrency Bill in the Winter Session of Parliament. The proposed bill would focus on investor protection as crypto currencies come under a complex asset class category.

In the meanwhile, let's look at what India may allow and may not allow when it comes to cryptos.

For starters, India has had a hot-and-cold relationship with digital currencies in the past few years. In 2018, it effectively banned crypto transactions after a string of frauds following Modis sudden decision to eliminate 80% of the nations currencies, but the Supreme Court struck down the restriction in March 2020.

After Supreme Court overturned the RBIs order, which effectively lifted the ban on cryptocurrency trading in India, the craze in the country has grown at a furious rate.

Following this in February 5, 2021, the central bank had instituted an internal panel to suggest a model of central bank's digital currency.

An inter-ministerial panel on cryptocurrency under the Chairmanship of Secretary (Economic Affairs) had recommended that all currencies except those issued by the state should be banned.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has repeatedly reiterated its strong views against cryptocurrencies saying they pose serious threats to the macroeconomic and financial stability of the country and also doubted the number of investors trading on them as well their claimed market value.

Currently, there are no particular regulations or any ban on use of crypto currencies in the country. The union government has not yet enacted a law on cryptos, but is in consultation with industry experts, comments from various officials and ministers.

After several rounds of caution, the government might largely want to set some limits for cryptos in India in the larger public interest. However, from the recent PM meeting, the overall view within government is that steps taken would be proactive, "progressive and forward-looking" as cryptos represented an evolving technology.

The crypto community has made several representations to Indian authorities asking to be classified as an asset rather than as a currency, in order to gain acceptance and avoid a ban.

A possibility that is being explored in the government is that cryptocurrencies may be barred for the use of transactions or making payments, but allow them to be held as assets like gold, shares or bonds, an Economic Times report said.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) could be designated as the regulator, though that has not been finalised, according to the same report.

India's digital currency market was worth $6.6 billion in May 2021, compared with $923 million in April 2020, according to blockchain data platform Chainalysis.

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Cryptocurrency regulation: What India may allow and may not - Livemint