Weekly Blockchain News, October 18, 2021

Welcome back in the weekly summary of leading developments in the crypto/blockchain space, presented from Billon's point of view. Check what happened in the last days when it comes to CBDC and other enterprise uses of blockchain. Enjoy the read!

Digital Pound Foundation launches to push for UK CBDC. Billon, Accenture, Ripple and other household names launched the Digital Pound Foundation, an organization that aims to promote the development of a central bank digital currency for the U.K. The foundation will conduct research about and advocate for a digital British pound, and get multiple stakeholders to work together to help design and roll out the currency. Thrilled to be on board!

Mississippi Southern Baptist church first to accept cryptocurrency donations. A Mississippi Baptist church has become the first Southern Baptist church to accept cryptocurrencies for donations and tithes. The church accepts payments in one of seven cryptocurrencies in set amounts.

US claims bitcoin mining crown following China crackdown. The U.S. has become the world’s leader in bitcoin mining following the renewed crackdown on the industry in China, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) said. The latest CCAF data shows the U.S accounting for 35.4% of the global hashrate as of the end of August, more than doubling from 16.8% at the end of April. China’s share has “effectively dropped to zero,” according to the CCAF, following the government-mandated ban on crypto mining in the country.

How a startup is supplying a whole city with heat from bitcoin mining. MintGreen, a Canadian cleantech cryptocurrency miner, is working with Lonsdale Energy Corp. to supply heat to the city of North Vancouver, British Columbia, from bitcoin mining. The heat source for thr 50 thousand population will be introduced in 2022 and will prevent 20,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas per megawatt from entering the atmosphere compared with natural gas, 

JPMorgan's Dimon blasts bitcoin as 'worthless', due for regulation. Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co chief executive, said on Monday at a conference that cryptocurrencies will be regulated by governments and that he personally thinks bitcoin is "worthless." No matter what anyone thinks about it, government is going to regulate it", he commented.

Putin says he accepts crypto’s role in payments. Cryptocurrency “has the right to exist and can be used as a means of payment,” Vladimir Putin said in an interview with CNBC that was posted on the Kremlin’s website Thursday. Still, he cautioned it was too soon to talk about using digital currencies for trading oil and other commodities that form the bulk of Russia’s exports. 

G7 finance ministers and bankers adopt guidelines for CBDCs. Any digital currency issued by a central bank must support financial and monetary stability, finance leaders from G7 member states have insisted. State-issued coins should also ensure privacy, transparency, and data protection, the officials stated. The forum adopted 13 public policy principles for retail digital currencies and stressed that “CBDCs are not ‘cryptoassets.’”

Visa launches NFT program to support digital artists. Visa is launching a non-fungible token support program to help artists join the digital art space. The financial services giant is partnering with former Major League Baseball player turned NFT artist Micah Johnson to build a program that will support artists who want to use NFTs to sell their work

And that's it for now. See you next week!