TL;DR: Welcome to In Case You Missed It (ICYMI), a daily crypto news update. FBI Director raises concern about crypto to Homeland Security committee. Facebook Coin Libra head David Marcus doesn’t think BTC is a currency. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro flashes his Trezor on national TV. Malaysia to impose restrictions on cash transactions next year. Zcash trademark donated to the Zcash Foundation, and BitPay implements Ethereum support.
FBI Director Sees Crypto as a Threat
At a recent hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Senator Mitt Romney asked the panel to determine if cryptocurrencies could be used to harm the country. FBI Director Christopher Wray declared, “Certainly for us cryptocurrency is already a significant issue and we can project out pretty easily that it’s going to become a bigger and bigger one.” However, he did not make any regulatory recommendations and only pointed to the fact different tech is aiding terrorists more and more.
David Marcus Does Not Think of BTC as a Currency
David Marcus, the head of the Libra project, a cryptocurrency initiative backed by Facebook, declared he does not think of BTC as a currency. “I don’t think of Bitcoin as a currency. It’s actually not a great medium of exchange because of its volatility,” he said while speaking at a New York Times Conference in New York. David Marcus explained he saw BTC as an “investment class that’s decorrelated from the rest of the market,” seeing it as “digital gold,” not usable as a remittance vehicle due to its inherent volatility.
Venezuelan President Flashes Trezor Wallet on National TV
Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela, displayed a Trezor cryptocurrency wallet on national television during the inauguration of a cryptocurrency fair in Caracas. Attendants at the Trezor booth gave President Maduro a Trezor wallet “to guard his crypto in the safest manner,” identifying them as official representatives of the brand in Venezuela. Despite this, Trezor stated they “do not have any official representatives in Venezuela, nor do we have any active authorized resellers in this region.”
Malaysia to Impose Cash Transaction Limits Next Year
The Malaysian government is planning to start restricting large cash money transactions starting next year, with the objective of curbing the use of physical money for illicit activities. The upper limit will be established at RM25,000, or about $6K. While the limit will undoubtedly affect some businesses still carrying transactions with large sums of cash, the average total money spending of the typical household is around RM8,000 a month, a sum way below the proposed limit, according to Bank Negara’s governor Abdul Rasheed.
Zcash Trademark Comes to the Zcash Foundation
The Zcash™ trademark (along with the golden “Z” logo, etc.) is now under a novel legal arrangement which gives legal force to community-driven governance over control of the trademark. https://t.co/4zgVUXvTaq
— zooko (@zooko) November 7, 2019
The Electric Coin Company has decided to donate the Zcash trademark to the Zcash foundation under a joint agreement they’re qualifying as “novel.” Now, both entities will have to agree to any changes on the network protocol before having the right of calling the new resulting chain Zcash. The agreement is thought to be a positive one by the community as the trademark guarantees “the Zcash name is applied to the correct blockchain.”
BitPay Implements Ethereum Support
It's here! 🚀 #Ethereum support has come to the BitPay app and BitPay merchants everywhere. See some of the merchants accepting #ETH with BitPay 😃: https://t.co/knUosaP03o pic.twitter.com/Atw19y2Iyu
— BitPay (@BitPay) October 22, 2019
BitPay, one of the most important cryptocurrency payment processors, implemented support for Ethereum payments on its system. Now, all existing customers using BitPay will be able to pay for goods and services using ETH. While Ethereum payments were announced back in September, the company just recently updated its system by going live with the coin. The company has also teased the implementation of payments using ERC20 tokens, stablecoins like USDC, Gemini Dollar, and Paxos Standard.
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