Every once in a while, the crypto community crowns a new king for secure transactions, and the latest king seems to be multiparty computation, or MPC. This year, MPC adoption by custodial and noncustodial players has progressed and gained market traction at a rapid pace. However, it could come at a price. MPC providers offer regulators a backdoor into cryptocurrency transactions. As the industry becomes more reliant on MPC for security, it could end up compromising on the long-held principles of decentralization and censorship-resistance. The hidden features of MPC In order to identify where the risks exist, let’s briefly recap …

Per an announcement on Friday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, is looking for public comments on rule-making that would stop banks from denying services to businesses based on sector. In the words of Comptroller Brian Brooks, “Blanket boycotts of entire industry sectors have to stop.” The OCC’s announcement points to political hot-button issues that banks have systematically denied services to, including oil and gas companies in Alaska as well as Planned Parenthood. Speaking to the media, Brooks noted the bipartisan nature of many of these bans: “These things are not politically partisan, but there are …

Japan’s three largest banks, as part of a group of 30 private sector actors, are set to collaborate on an experiment with a digital yen. The group consists of banks, various Japanese brokerages, utility and telecom firms and retailers, according to a Reuters report published on Nov. 19. For the purposes of the experiment, the private banks will be responsible for issuing the currency, although the prospect of other actors becoming involved in issuance has not been ruled out, according to the chair of the new group, Hiromi Yamaoka. Yamaoka is a former executive at Japan’s central bank, which itself …

Belarusbank, the largest financial institution in Belarus, is reportedly launching a cryptocurrency exchange service. According to a Nov. 12 report by local news agency Prime Press, Belarusbank is rolling out a service allowing users to exchange cryptocurrency using a Visa payment card. As reported, the new service enables trading crypto against fiat currencies like the Belarusian ruble as well as the United States dollar and the euro. Belarusbank executives reportedly said that the launch of the new crypto service comes in line with the company’s digital transformation program that was announced a few years ago. The new service is reportedly …

Deutsche Bank, the largest banking institution in Germany, is confident that central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, will replace cash in the future. The bank’s research arm, Deutsche Bank Research, published a new report on economic estimations and proposals to assist global economies hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Titled “What We Must Do to Rebuild,” the study was released on Nov. 10. In the report, Deutsche Bank states that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the “digital cash revolution.” According to the bank, this revolution will eventually enable CBDCs like China’s digital yuan or Sweden’s e-krona to replace cash in …

Brian Brooks, the former Coinbase executive turned leader of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, recently received a letter from multiple members of Congress expressing concerns over his crypto-heavy leadership. The letter, from Stephen Lynch and Rashida Tlaib, two congresspeople for Massachusetts and Michigan respectively, also holds signatures from Jesús García, Deb Haaland, Barbara Lee and Ayanna Pressley — representatives from Illinois, New Mexico, California and Massachusetts. The letter references the OCC's "recent unilateral actions in the digital financial activities space, including interpretive letters on cryptocurrency custody, stablecoins, and its announced plans to start offering …

The annual Crypto Finance Conference (CfC), an international conference on digital asset and blockchain conceived for sophisticated investors and decision makers, will be held on Jan. 20–22, 2021. Among featured speakers there will be representatives of Winklevoss Capital, Swiss National Bank, the European Parliament, Ledger and others. Cointelegraph serves as the main media partner for the CfC St. Moritz 2021 and prepared a special page dedicated to the event. The program of the three-day event will include discussions on the macro-perspective and micro-perspective on the industry – on Jan. 20 and 21, and focus events about social impact and decentralization …

In early September of this year, the market capitalization of Bitcoin (BTC) was hovering at around $190 billion when the BTC price was hovering around $10,000. In the past two months, however, the price of Bitcoin rose from to over $15,000. With it, the market cap of Bitcoin surged from $190 billion to around $280 billion. This now makes Bitcoin more valuable than most major U.S. companies. Bitcoin is equivalent to the 18th largest commercial company in the U.S. If Bitcoin’s valuation is compared to publicly-listed firms in the U.S., it would match the 18th biggest firm. The 17th largest …

Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes has said that Brazil will issue its own central bank digital currency, or CBDC. Guedes made the statement on Thursday during a ceremony celebrating the 100 millionth digital savings account opened at Caixa Economica Federal: "Now that the central bank is autonomous again, it’s also amazing in the digital dimension: Pix, OpenBank, fintechs and digital currency. Brazil will have its own digital currency. Brazil is ahead of many countries." This is the first time that the minister has spoken directly on the subject, although he has not provided any further details on the CBDC project …

Alfa-Bank, one of the largest private commercial banks in Russia, has joined a blockchain trade finance network backed by HSBC. According to an official announcement on Nov. 3, Alfa-Bank is the first Russian bank to become a member of Contour — a blockchain platform connecting the world’s major financial institutions like HSBC, ING and Citi. The network allows bank customers to track the processing and modification of trade finance transactions and cut operational costs. Evgenia Fomina, head of the Alfa-Bank lending directorate, said that Contour-based pilots in the Russian market intend to improve the quality of cross-border transactions, stating: “The …

Major private-owned Russian bank Gazprombank has received regulatory approval to launch cryptocurrency custody services through its Swiss subsidiary. According to an official announcement on Oct. 29, the bank scored approval from the country's financial regulator, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, to offer crypto custody and trading services to its institutional and corporate clients. Offerings will initially be restricted to a select group of customers with Bitcoin (BTC) as the only supported cryptocurrency. Gazprombank plans to gradually expand the offering to include additional cryptocurrencies as well as other related products and services. Gazprombank CEO Roman Abdulin said, “We expect digital …

Mongolia's largest bank will soon begin offering crypto services including custody, remittance, deposits, loans, and crypto-asset management. According to DDaily, blockchain company Hexlant — founded by former Samsung developers — and white label tech company Delio havagreed to start working with the Ulaanbaatar-based Trade & Development Bank of Mongolia, or TDB Bank. It's one of Mongolia’s oldest banks, with 50 branches across the nation, ranking second out of 17 Mongolian banks in terms of total assets. But the deal is not limited to the three parties aforementioned. The media outlet detailed that MDKI, a Mongolian mineral resource and blockchain company …