Algorand To Hold Q&A Session On Central Bank Digital Currencies
- The session will feature the team behind the national digital currency of the Marshal Islands.
- The discussion intends to cover key topics surrounding CBDCs, including why blockchain should be used as the underlying technology and how adoption can be accelerated.
Federal Reserve bank of Chicago. Eric Allix Rogers/Open House Chicago
The Algorand team announced on May 5 that they will be hosting a live Q&A session with the team behind the Marshallese sovereign (SOV) currency, which is the first national digital currency.
The live virtual event will be held on May 7 from 3:15 PM to 4:30 PM EEST. The registration page cites a recent report (23 January) from the Bank of International Settlements, where an estimated 80% of central banks are looking at blockchain as the underlying technology for a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The Q&A session will include people from both the team behind SOV and Algorand, namely Peter Dittus, who is the chief economist at SFB Technologies and Marshall Islands digital currency advisor, Co-Pierre Georg, who is on the Economic Advisory Committee at Algorand Foundation, David Markley, who is the director of business solutions at Algorand, and Pietro Grassano, who is the business solutions director for Algorand in Europe.
The topics that will be covered will include the story of SOV as well as general questions around central bank digital currencies, such as why central banks would be interested in using CBDC, why they would want to use blockchain as the underlying technology, and what the future holds.
In a previous article, I talked in length about the viability of central bank digital currencies – both ones built on top of blockchain and ones built on top of traditional account systems. Ironically, cryptocurrency was created to be a potential replacement for central banks, but it would seem that, instead of replacing these institutions, digital assets could become a vital part of them, forcing the necessary evolution of the banking system as countries move towards cashless societies.
- The head of China’s central bank digital currency institute said the e-CNY has undergone a major upgrade, and should be made available as an option in all retail scenarios.
- The PBOC official noted that platforms can integrate the CBDC in the short term using QR codes, and focus on upgrading their payment tools in the long run.
Office building of the People’s Bank of China. Flickr
- The current governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, announced he is joining the race for the 47th president of the U.S. during a Twitter Spaces event on Wednesday.
- During his speech DeSantis declared his support for Bitcoin and the wider crypto space, noting that if Joe Biden is re-elected “they’ll probably end up killing it”.
- The Algorand wallet provider has warned users to withdraw their assets from mnemonic wallets after an attacker targeted a group of “high-profile MyAlgo accounts”.
- The root cause of the attacks remains unknown, with MyAlgo still investigating the issue, but reports have indicated that close to $9M were stolen so far.