Stellar reveals Financial Inclusion report

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News Date: January 10, 2024

Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) released a whitepaper discussing the role of blockchain technology in facilitating financial inclusion.
The whitepaper underscores the significance of financial services access for global financial inclusion, particularly in developing economies.
Despite advancements in digital payments, cash remains prevalent in emerging economies. Many unbanked adults still receive government and private-sector payments in cash, impacting financial inclusion.
It emphasizes digital payments as a pivotal entry point to formal economic participation. Despite the persistence of cash usage, transitioning to digital payments can encourage broader use of financial services.
The paper delves into the hurdles of cross-border payments and highlights blockchain's potential to address these challenges. It showcases blockchain's role in enabling secure, cost-effective transactions.
Additionally, it presents various applications of blockchain, such as facilitating cash-to-digital asset conversions, safeguarding against currency devaluation, and supporting humanitarian aid distribution.
While recognizing blockchain's promise for financial inclusion, the document emphasizes the necessity of balancing innovation with consumer protection, privacy, and financial education to ensure the creation of inclusive and secure financial systems.
Full report: stellar.org

Banks Are Restocking Gold

Banks Are Restocking Gold at Fastest Pace in Years.
The Comex vaults have been steadily depleted over the last several months, however, 1.6M ounces of gold just showed up since March 1.
This is the largest inflow since October 2020 and we are only halfway through March!
This may be simply a restock of the metal lost in Jan and Feb.
It's also possible this is being used to support the massive delivery volume being seen in the historically quiet month of March.
But a third possibility is that the banks are preparing for massive delivery volume in April.
Source: schiffgold.com

Zimbabwe to back its currency with gold

Update: The IMF urged Zimbabwe to expedite currency reforms during a recent staff visit, emphasizing a move towards a market-driven exchange rate and the removal of existing distortions.
Zimbabwe's Finance Minister announced new measures to stabilize its local currency in an online press briefing held Monday.
Zimbabwe to back its currency with hard assets such as gold to end exchange-rate instability, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said.
"The idea going forward is to make sure that we manage the growth of liquidity which has a high correlation to money supply growth and inflation.
The way to do that is to link the exchange rate to some hard asset such as gold," said Ncube.
He also announced a conference of African ministers that Zimbabwe will host at the end of this month.

Gold and Rubles Exchanged in Digital Form

Digital Gold Traded for Digital Rubles by Russia's Rosbank.
Rosbank has brokered Russia's first deal involving the exchange of tokenized gold with the digital version of the Russian national fiat currency, the ruble.
Source: bitcoin.com

Basel III endgame strikes the Federal Reserve

U.S. Federal Reserve officials, led by Fed Vice Chair Michael Barr, are exploring changes to the 'Basel III endgame' overhaul for bank capital regulations.
This includes reconsidering operational risk calculations and potential offsets for mortgage servicing.
It marks a significant shift as the Fed acknowledges concerns from the banking industry about the policy's impact on lending.
Here is Michael Barr's statement:
'We want to make sure that the rule supports a vibrant economy that supports low - and moderate-income communities, that gets the calibration right upon things like mortgages.
So the public comment that we're getting on this is really critical for us getting it right. We take it very, very seriously.
That program was really designed in that emergency situation. It was designed for that emergency to say, we want to make sure that banks and creditors of banks and depositors banks understand that banks have the liquidity they need.'

Next generation supersonic jet

Virgin released a few fantastic conceptual designs of the new supersonic commercial aircraft that would have the capacity for 9 to 19 people at an altitude above 60,000 feet.
The now-retired Concorde flew at average cruising speed around Mach 2, which would mean the Virgin aircraft could hit speeds over 2,300 mph, or about 50% faster.
Sources:liveandletsfly.com, www.zerohedge.com