Payments

Immutable expands Web3 gaming payment options with Transak integration

Immutable deploys Transak’s functionality into its zkEVM gaming development infrastructure, powering in-game cryptocurrency and fiat payment methods.

Web3 gaming firm Immutable is set to integrate Transak as the sole payment service provider for its Immutable zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM). The service is set to directly power fiat and Web3-based payments in gaming environments.

Transak’s service will be integrated into Immutable Checkout and Immutable Passport. The former acts as Immutable’s all-in-one transaction infrastructure for games and provides a configurable interface for game developers to integrate various payment options.

Transak’s on-ramp, off-ramp and nonfungible token (NFT) payment service allows fiat payments through credit and debit cards, as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay. Transak marketing head Harshit Gangwar told Cointelegraph that the payment rail will power in-game transactions for digital assets:

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Russia debuts cross-border payments in Tether stablecoin

In addition to Tether, companies transacting through the Exved system can use the U.S. dollar and the offshore ruble, the platform said.

One of Russia’s first cross-border payment platforms has officially announced its launch and says it will facilitate local legal entities to process international settlements in cryptocurrency.

Exved, a local digital settlement platform — which describes itself as a “digital counterparty search system” — announced the launch on Dec. 7, stating that Russian importers and exporters can now use its business-to-business solution to simplify the process of “foreign exchange operations and foreign economic activity.”

The Exved platform specifically allows one to proceed with cross-border transactions using the Tether (USDT) stablecoin alongside the offshore ruble and the United States dollar, the announcement reads.

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Crypto payments: PayPal’s stablecoin ripple effect on markets

Earlier this year, PayPal released its own stablecoin. What effect has it had on crypto adoption?

PayPal’s introduction of its native stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), has sparked heated debates within the crypto industry regarding its possible sway on payments and wider crypto adoption.

While this step seems to be a big jump toward accepting cryptocurrencies in regular finance, some industry observers advise caution.

What is PYUSD?

This initiative aims to bridge the fiat and digital currency realms for consumers, merchants and developers. PayPal CEO Dan Schulman highlighted the need for a stable digital-fiat conduit.

“The shift toward digital currencies requires a stable instrument that is both digitally native and easily connected to fiat currency like the U.S. Our commitment to responsible innovation and compliance, and our track record delivering new experiences to our customers, provides the foundation necessary to contribute to the growth of digital payments through PayPal USD.” 

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Swiss city Lugano accepts Bitcoin and Tether for municipal taxes

The Swiss city of Lugano officially announced that it has started accepting BTC and USDT as payment for taxes and all other community fees.

The Swiss city of Lugano is enhancing the local adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) by enabling citizens and companies to pay for municipal services and taxes with cryptocurrency.

The city of Lugano officially announced on Dec.

Starting immediately, Lugano will accept Bitcoin and major stablecoin Tether (USDT) as a means of payment in an automated process through the Swiss institutional-grade cryptocurrency platform Bitcoin Suisse.

According to the announcement, Lugano citizens and companies will be able to pay all local invoices — regardless of the nature of the service or the amount invoiced — with Bitcoin.

Residents of Lugano are able to pay taxes or services with Bitcoin through the Swiss QR-bill by scanning the code on the invoice and paying with their preferred mobile wallet and the selected cryptocurrency.

Lugano’s latest crypto move is part of Plan B, a collaborative effort with Tether to use Bitcoin technology as the foundation for transforming the city’s financial system.

Related: Swiss crypto bank Seba rebrands to Amina amid global expansion

As previously reported, Lugano started adopting cryptocurrencies for tax payments as part of a collaboration with Tether in March 2022.

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Crypto payment firm Alchemy Pay adds SEPA deposits in Europe

Alchemy Pay has introduced new deposit options, including the euro Instant solution, SEPA Instant, and the U.K. fast money transfer option, Faster Payments.

Cryptocurrency payment platform Alchemy Pay is scaling its payment options by integrating new on-ramps — new ways to buy crypto — in Europe and the United Kingdom.

Alchemy Pay has introduced new deposit options, including the euro instant solution, Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Instant, and the U.K.

Announcing the news on Nov. 29, Alchemy Pay stated that the new payment options aim to simplify purchasing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), enabling transfers to be processed in “seconds to a few minutes.”

With SEPA Instant, European Alchemy Pay customers can buy up to 5,000 euros ($5,460) in cryptocurrency, while Faster Payments has a transfer limit of up to 5,000 British pounds ($6,320).

Europe’s SEPA Instant payments and Faster Payments in the U.K.

“This move further amplifies Alchemy Pay’s payment network throughout Europe, surpassing emerging markets and broadening its influence,” the announcement states.

Related: SoFi Technologies to cease crypto services by Dec. 19

According to the announcement, Alchemy Pay currently supports 300 fiat payment channels across 173 countries, mainly in Southeast Asia. The platform is actively expanding its payment service worldwide, adding new licenses in the United States recently, including the states of Iowa and Arkansas.

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Lack of regulatory clarity on payment solutions could undermine US sanctions, says expert

Anja Manuel said U.S. sanctions generally work with “responsible” blockchain firms but not when there are fintech solutions available to individuals looking to circumvent them.

According to former Department of State official Anja Manuel, if the United States isn’t able to maintain its dominance in financial innovation and payments, it could affect its national security policy, specifically on sanctions.

Speaking to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and listeners in an April 21 Twitter Spaces discussion, Manuel said that because the U.S. was one of the biggest global leaders in payments, it allowed the government to enforce sanctions on “bad actors” like Iran or North Korea. According to Manuel, letting the country lead in innovation under clear rules reinforced U.S. national security controls, but China seemed to be catching up on dominance in mobile payments “both in sophistication and scale.”

“While we’re hemming and hawing here and not having a thoughtful regulatory framework in the U.S., China is marching forward, lots of other people are marching forward,” said Manuel. “If Chinese payments solutions, for example, gained a dominant foothold in the developing world, [sanctions are] going to become much, much harder.”

The U.S. enforces sanctions through the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Treasury Department, which has announced several actions against Russian nationals and groups related to their involvement in the war on Ukraine — including sanctions on crypto wallets. The former Department of State official said sanctions generally worked “in a world of traditional banks” and “responsible” blockchain firms, but not when there existed financial technology firms available to individuals looking to circumvent restrictions.

Manuel added:

“Other thoughtful countries are getting their act together, from Singapore to the U.K. to the EU. This is not impossible — it just hasn’t happened in the U.S. In the U.S., regulation has been almost entirely by enforcement actions from the SEC.”

The Twitter Spaces discussion was part of Coinbase’s “Crypto435” campaign, aimed at promoting pro-crypto policies and candidates in the United States. Armstrong has reiterated calls for action among pro-crypto U.S. voters following the exchange receiving a Wells notice in March — suggesting a potential enforcement action from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Related: What new EU sanctions mean for crypto exchanges and their Russian clients

“Countries aren’t going to wait for the United States to get this right,” Tomicah Tillemann, a former senior adviser to two U.S. Secretaries of State, said in regard to regulation. “At the moment, there are 114 different governments that are in pretty advanced stages of investigating their own central bank digital currencies. More than half of those are very far along in the process.”

Armstrong has been one of the more vocal critics among major U.S. digital asset exchange leaders in saying the SEC needs to provide “clear rules to regulate the crypto industry.” Amid the looming Wells notice, the Coinbase CEO said he met with SEC officials and U.S. lawmakers this week to push for regulatory clarity.

Magazine: The FBI’s takedown of Virgil Griffith for breaking sanctions, firsthand

Bitcoin Lightning Network is 1,000x cheaper than Visa and MasterCard: Data

Glassnode data demonstrates that the Lightning Network outcompetes traditional payment networks in terms of commission costs.

Fresh data from Glassnode demonstrates that Bitcoin’s (BTC) Lightning Network is significantly cheaper to use than legacy payment networks.

The median fee rate, or the cost of sending value across the Lightning Network, is 0.0029%, 1,000 times cheaper than that of MasterCard of Visa payment processors. 

James Check, lead analyst at Glassnode, told Cointelegraph that the median fee rate, or the fee charged per 1 BTC sent across the Lightning Network, is currently 3,000 Satoshis (the smallest unit of Bitcoin). That is “equivalent to $0.84 to send $28,800 worth of value […] which is a fee of 0.0029%.”

“Pretty remarkable when you think about it.”

In a post on the Nostr social media protocol, Bitcoin analyst Dylan LeClair noted that this rate is many times less than that charged by major credit card companies. 

The Lightning Network, a layer-2 payments solution built atop the world’s largest cryptocurrency was first proposed as a way to make Bitcoin effective as a payment method. These data points demonstrate that it is not only fast but low-cost,  with the mean fee rate has been steadily trending lower since November 2021.

Source: Glassnode

Legacy payment networks such as Visa and Mastercard charge merchants a fee of around 2-3% per transaction, making them an expensive option for businesses. In an upcoming Cointelegraph documentary shot in Cape Verde, the business owner of one of the few businesses to accept Bitcoin explained that accepting foreign Visa and Mastercard costs over 8%.

Moreover, Glassnode’s Check referred to users who run their own nodes and manage their own channels. Many Lightning users take advantage of custodial wallets, such as Wallet of Satoshi and Alby to make micropayments on social media apps such as Nostr.

Some Bitcoin early adopters have noted the growing preference for custodial solutions (as the Bitcoiner mantra is “not your keys, not your coin”), although semi-custodial solutions such as Fedi and Cashu could undermine reliance on fully custodial solutions. 

Related: MicroStrategy’s Saylor fuses work email address with Bitcoin Lightning

Furthermore, the throughput of the Lightning Network could be called into question. Check explained:

“Of course, we must also consider that the typical channel is smaller than 1 BTC. The median channel size is 0.02 BTC and the mean is 0.08 BTC, so overall the Lightning Network remains well suited to payments below $1,000.”

In the below graph, the channel size is trending higher but still well under $10,000. In such an environment, payments over $1,000 may be better suited to the Bitcoin base chain in order to avoid payment failure or misfire. 

Related: Bitcoin in Senegal: Why is this African country using BTC?

Israel’s central bank says CBDC could be issued if stablecoin use increases

The Bank of Israel does not want private companies taking over the digital payments system in the country.

The Bank of Israel says it’s preparing an action plan for the potential issuance of a central bank digital currency, though a formal decision has yet to be made.

On April 17, the Bank of Israel Steering Committee on the Potential Issuance of a Digital Shekel outlined possible scenarios for the development and deployment of a CBDC, a digital shekel called “SHAKED.”

It provided several scenarios that could lead to the issuance of a digital shekel, among them was increased stablecoin activity.

Increased adoption of stablecoins may “impair the payment system,” it noted, before adding that stablecoins not pegged to the shekel “might also harm the monetary transmission.”

“At this point, there are no signs of substantial adoption of stablecoins as means of payment in Israel. However, paying habits of the public might change rapidly, for instance in a scenario of issuance by a major private sector entity.”

Another potential driver of CBDC development is a decline in the use of cash in Israel, the committee said. While cash is still used in a significant portion of consumer transactions in the country, a change in the public’s payment habits may result in a shift away from using central bank fiat, according to the committee.

The Bank of Israel does not want this scenario or private entities controlling payments so a CBDC could be the solution.

It also said that consideration for the issuance of a CBDC would be made to “support competition in the payments system and in the financial system in the digital era.”

If the United States or the European Union issues a CBDC, then this would also influence Israel’s decision to deploy one, it stated.

The Bank of Israel Steering Committee concluded that it was monitoring the situation in preparation for advancing the digital shekel.

Related: CBDC will be used for ‘control,’ ECB president admits in vid chat with fake Zelensky

Israel appears to be shadowing the U.S. in terms of crypto regulation. Earlier this year, the country’s securities regulator proposed legislation that would classify crypto assets as securities in the country.

Industry executives have expressed concern claiming it could “kill the industry.”

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom

MicroStrategy’s Saylor fuses work email address with Bitcoin Lightning

Fans of the Bitcoin bull have been transferring him 21 Satoshis as a way to test out the feature.

The Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network has integrated into the corporate email address of Michael Saylor, a Bitcoin bull and co-founder of business intelligence software firm MicroStrategy.

In an April 17 tweet, the former chief executive of the firm shared a screenshot with his 3 million Twitter followers of a few transactions sent to “saylor@microstrategy.com” from others in the form of Satoshis or “Sats” — the smallest denomination of Bitcoin.

MicroStrategy’s integration is enabled by the Lightning Address protocol, which allows users to link an “Internet Identifier” like an email address rather than having to copy wallet addresses or use QR codes.

It is unclear if MicroStrategy integrated the feature into all corporate emails at the firm.

The Lightning Network is a popular Bitcoin layer 2 scaling solution, capable of processing 1 million transactions per second (TPS) for a base fee of 1 Satoshi, or around four cents.

Saylor, who now serves as executive chairman at the firm, has been the mastermind behind MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin investment strategy, whaims to strengthen the firm’s balance sheet.

Related: Coinbase CEO says Bitcoin Lightning is ‘something we’ll integrate’

MicroStrategy has spent $4.17 billion to accumulate 140,000 BTC since the company began buying in March 2021. The firm’s average purchase price is $29,800, according to data from Buy Bitcoin Worldwide.

With the price of Bitcoin currently sitting at $29,400, MicroStrategy is down a mere 1.3% on its total investment.

However, the firm was in the green again for a short period of time last week when Bitcoin broke through the $30,000 mark.

Cointelegraph contacted MicroStrategy for comment on its plans to integrate the Lightning Network in more of its corporate email addresses but did not receive an immediate response.

Magazine: Bitcoin in Senegal: Why is this African country using BTC?

Bank of England preparing for greater role of tokenization in finance, official says

BoE deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe looked at stablecoins, CBDC and other forms of tokenization taking hold in the modern economy in a speech on financial innovation.

Bank of England deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe spoke at the Innovative Finance Global Summit in London on April 17 about the development of tokenization. The UK’s central bank is currently exploring tokenization in bank money, non-bank money and central bank money and the ways tokenized assets will interact.

Stablecoins, Cunliffe said, “offer the possibility of greater efficiency and functionality in payments,” but “it is extremely unlikely that any of the current offerings would meet the standards for robustness and uniformity we currently apply both to commercial bank money and to the existing payment systems.” The central bank is planning to collaborate with the Financial Conduct Authority on regulation after the passage of the Financial Services and Markets Bill.

Related: Bank of England has no tech skills to issue CBDC yet: Deputy governor

Tokenized bank deposits are “a much simpler proposition than non-bank stablecoins,” and may allow banks deposits “to compete better with non-bank payment coins.” Regulatory issues, such as deposit insurance and Anti-Money Laundering measures remain, however, as deposit tokens would settle without the involvement of central bank money, unlike current commercial bank settlements.

A UK central bank digital currency “is likely to be needed if current trends in payments and money […] continue.” A digital pound would play an anchoring role in the economy the way cash does now and would provide a wide range of innovators access to a platform. Machinery could be created to ensure that wholesale tokenized transactions could settle in central bank money thanks to a digital pound, again adding to financial stability, Cunliffe said.

Synchronizing tokenized transactions with the British central bank’s real time payment system will also be potentially possible with upgrades that are now underway, Cunliffe said. The United States Federal Reserve has recently announced the creation of FedNow, a new instant payment system.

Magazine: Starbucks joins NFT party, UK government seeks stablecoin regulations and Crypto Twitter rallies behind cancer fighter, Hodler’s Digest: Apr. 3-9