Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The central bank of Indonesia is working to issue a wholesale digital rupiah. The new currency is meant to be the only legal tender for digital transactions in the country while the regulator also wants to ensure that it will be exchangeable across borders. Digital Rupiah Concept Expected by Year End Indonesia’s monetary authority is advancing with a project to issue a digital version of the national fiat for wholesale transactions. It plans to release the conceptual design of the future digital rupiah by the end of 2022, Governor Perry Warjiyo revealed in a briefing on Thursday. Quoted by Bloomberg, he elaborated: The principle of digital rupiah will be the same as paper money which is to be the only legal currency for digital transactions in Indonesia. Bank Indonesia has been studying the possible launch of its central bank digital currency ( CBDC ) since last year. Its main intention is to get ahead of the global adoption of cryptocurrency as a payment method, the report note...

U.S. Congressman Brad Sherman has urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to go after major cryptocurrency exchanges that traded xrp, which the regulator deems a security. “It’s easier to go after the small fish than the big fish, but the big fish operating major exchanges did many, many tens of thousands of transactions with xrp,” said the lawmaker. US Lawmaker Urges SEC to Focus on Major Crypto Exchanges Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA), chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Investor Protection, held a hearing Wednesday to examine the efforts by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to address emerging risks and to protect investors. During the hearing, Sherman, who is a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, questioned SEC Director of Enforcement Gurbir Grewal regarding XRP and tether. The congressman told Grewal: “You’ve gone after XRP because XRP is a security. But you haven’t gone after all the major crypto exchanges ...

A panel of crypto industry experts has predicted that solana will be worth $166 by 2025 and $512 by 2030. “SOL is one of the leading contenders in the smart contract blockchain space. They are likely to be one of the chief beneficiaries if the Ethereum upgrades fail to deliver lower transaction fees,” one of the experts said. Solana’s Price Prediction Price comparison portal Finder updated its solana (SOL) price predictions Tuesday. Finder “measures expert predictions of the future SOL price” using weekly and quarterly surveys. “Our larger quarterly survey, last conducted in July 2022, asks a panel of 54 industry experts for their thoughts on how Solana will perform over the next decade,” the company wrote. Finder detailed: Our panel thinks solana (SOL) will be worth $45 by the end of 2022 before rising to $166 by 2025. In addition, the panel expects the price of SOL to increase to $512 by 2030. Compared to previous predictions, the panel is significantly more bearish in July,...

Social media users have slammed China’s reported use of military tanks to intimidate bank customers protesting against the freezing of their savings. Some users claimed the deployment of military tanks exposes the country’s underlying economic problems. Crypto proponents see the issue as a vindication of their long-standing argument. Savings Now Investment Products Some social media users have derided Chinese authorities’ reported decision to deploy tanks around the central bank’s offices in Henan where bank customers have been protesting against the freezing of their savings. The deployment of tanks follows reports the central bank in Henan Province told the protesting clients that their savings were now investment products. This meant affected bank clients could not withdraw their savings. In some of the videos , which have since gone viral on Twitter, military tanks are seen rolling in and around the area said to be the Bank of China’s offices. The deployment of the tanks comes ...

Xiaomi, one of the biggest mobile phone and tech companies in the world, has introduced a patent that implements blockchain technology for the creation of its own virtual characters. The patent, introduced in China, mentions that the creation of these characters will be randomized thanks to the introduction of a gene sequence, responsible for determining the looks of the character. Xiaomi Introduces Blockchain in Character Generation Patent More and more industries are including blockchain as part of their new products due to its decentralized and immutable traits. Xiaomi, a Chinese company known for its mobile phones and gadgets, has revealed a patent filing that includes blockchain in the process of the generation of its virtual characters. The patent, titled “Virtual Character Processing Method, Device and Storage Medium,” which was introduced in January 2022, was just recently disclosed by the company. In the patent, the company established that their own virtual characters wi...

On July 21, 2022, at 2:14 p.m. (ET) at block height 745,920, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty dropped by 5.01% outpacing the last two epoch changes. The latest downward shift makes it 5% easier to find blocks than it was during the past two weeks, and roughly 8.77% easier since June 22. It’s Now 11.39% Easier to Find a Bitcoin Block Since the Difficulty’s All-Time High on May 10 Bitcoin miners caught a break this week as the difficulty adjustment algorithm (DAA) adjusted downward for the third week in a row. The network’s difficulty is essentially measured by how difficult it is to find the correct hash for every minted block subsidy. The difficulty epoch is assessed every 2,016 blocks, and if the time it takes to mine those blocks is too fast, difficulty increases, and if it’s too slow, the difficulty decreases. The last difficulty increase took place on June 8, 2022, at block height 739,872, as it rose 1.29% higher than the two weeks prior. During the four weeks before the most recen...

A Saudi Arabia-based chemical manufacturer has said its recently launched blockchain pilot is expected to uncover the possibilities of the technology “in supporting end-to-end digital traceability of circular feedstock in customer products.” The benefits expected to accrue from using blockchain include reduced costs and time as well as improved data integration. End-to-End Digital Traceability A Saudi Arabian chemicals manufacturer, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), recently said it had launched a blockchain pilot project in conjunction with the technology firm Finboot. According to the chemicals producer, the objective of the pilot is to “investigate the possibilities of blockchain technology in supporting end-to-end digital traceability of circular feedstock [raw materials] in customer products.” In a press statement, SABIC said the current process of tracing the journey of feedstock is made difficult by the complex petrochemical value chain. Therefore, through the pilo...