Daily Digest - 29th September 2022

Headlines

▌Facebook Pay Officially Renamed Meta Pay

Meta announced on Wednesday that Facebook Pay has officially changed its name to Meta Pay. The company noted that the change to Meta Pay is only a brand name change, and the current product features and overall user experience will remain the same. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously noted that while the service remains the same, the renaming represents Meta's first step in creating a digital wallet for the virtual world. Zuckerberg said the vision for a digital wallet in a virtual world would allow users to securely manage their identities, what they own, and how they pay.

Policies

▌UK's FMI Sandbox Will Initially Focus on DLT-Based Securities Settlement Systems

Bank of England Deputy Governor Sir Jon Cunliffe said that the UK’s FMI sandbox will initially focus on DLT-based securities settlement systems. Cunliffe outlines the potential pros and cons of using blockchain for securities trading and settlement. These include: reducing or eliminating the number of intermediaries, radically lowering costs; simpler processes may mean fewer potential points of failure, thereby reducing risk; instant or atomic settlements eliminate the need for netting and holding margin needed; decentralization can improve liquidity; smart contracts enable automation and potential new business models. In April, the regulatory sandbox was announced as a joint initiative between the UK Treasury, the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority, to be launched in 2023.

Cryptocurrency

▌Chainlink to Launch Staking Reward Feature in December and Plans to Become Web3 Version of AWS

The oracle project Chainlink announced that it will launch a staking reward function in December. The initial staking pool size is 25 million LINK tokens. The number of LINK tokens that users can participate in will be determined according to the LINK they hold and the degree of community participation . At the same time, Chainlink has also launched a BUILD program for early-stage projects, which will give them priority access to services and premium support in exchange for contributions to their native tokens. Projects such as Truflation, Space & Time and Bitscrunch have already signed on. Sergey Nazarov, CEO of the project, said that the variety of services Chainlink provides—including price data feeds, weather data, random number generation for gaming applications, and cross-chain communication that takes place—means that Chainlink is becoming a decentralized An integrated data service platform, similar to the Web3 version of AWS.

▌Source: EU to Ban Crypto Payments in Russia After Independence Vote

The European Union is set to tighten restrictions on Russians’ cryptocurrency investments within the bloc as a result of Russia’s independence vote in occupied Ukraine. The previous cap on cryptocurrency holdings of 10,000 euros ($9,600) will be lifted, which could mean Russians will not be able to hold any assets in EU cryptocurrency wallets, the sources said. In April, the European Union announced that it would limit Russian payments to European cryptocurrency wallets to 10,000 euros, as it sought to prevent digital assets from being used to bypass restrictions on large-value bank transfers. New measures now mean that number could drop to zero.

▌Mike Novogratz: Next Bitcoin Rally Will Focus More on Utility Than Story

The Token2049 summit event in Singapore was held today, with Bloomberg’s chief international correspondent Haslinda Amin and Galaxy’s Mike Novogratz having a fireside chat on Bitcoin and the current economic situation. Mike Novogratz believes that the next Bitcoin bull run will have to be very different from historical cryptocurrency rallies in terms of story and utility, and the next Bitcoin rally will have to focus more on utility than story. One of the biggest rallies in history, the Bitcoin bull run of 2017, was mostly a story of people distrusting the government and wanting more privacy and decentralization. This is the millennial revolution for Gen Z, it's global, and it's a powerful story. Novogratz predicts that the next Bitcoin rally must be “50% story, 50% utility” compared to the aforementioned cryptocurrency bull run. In addition, Novogratz also believes that Web3 and NFT tokens will become an important part of the future gaming field.

▌UAE Government Official: Digital Currency Will Become Part of Mainstream Financial System in the Future

Omar Bin Sultan Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, believes that the future of finance is closely related to cryptocurrencies. In his view, "many of those involved in the initial development of cryptocurrencies and related technologies wanted to use them to circumvent mainstream financial institutions and monetary systems," but "for obvious reasons, this is neither a practical goal nor an ideal goal". He believes: “Instead, the future of digital currencies is firmly in the mainstream financial system, and they can have a huge impact on several issues in areas such as payments, banking and investment.”