THELOGICALINDIAN - n-a
These days, you can buy about annihilation with crypto: weed, porn, lambos…..even a new nationality. Coingeek says it will now advice anyone buy citizenship in Antigua and Barbuda for cryptocurrency, which agency that the abutting time addition says basic money is aloof for drugs and perverts, you’ll assuredly accept a rebuttal.
There’s alone one catch, though: you accept to pay with Bitcoin Cash.
“It is actual attenuate that you get an befalling to really change how you live but the Government of Antigua & Barbuda is alms aloof that,” Coingeek appear in a press release today. “In this globally different befalling you can adore citizenship in Antigua and Barbuda through the Citizen by Investment Program, application a Bitcoin BCH acquittal action organized by Antigua’s official Bitcoin Envoy Calvin Ayre.”
The account again describes in detail the adorable attractions of the island paradise–and we’re not aloof talking about the beaches. “Accepted applicants are offered a all-inclusive cardinal of business opportunities in Antigua’s emerging economy,” we learn. “Best of all there is no claimed assets tax in Antigua!”
The account links to a landing folio on Coingeek’s “Citizen by Investment” program, area approaching Antiguans can apprentice how to accomplish affectionate contributions to their -to-be homeland. “These CIP units from us can alone be paid for in Bitcoin(BCH); which the government of Antigua recognizes as the alone absolute Bitcoin and the worlds best scalable and adjustable cryptocurrency.”
The account was met with atheism by bounded media. “Oh boy, do we accept a lot of questions on this one,” wrote the addled editors of the Antigua Observer. “By accepting Bitcoin Cash, isn’t the government aperture itself to cogent barter risks because of the cryptocurrency’s volatility? What will the government do with the Bitcoin Cash it receives?” Not to mention, they add, the bad publicity associated with bearding currency, in a country already accepted as a ambush for tax cheats and criminals.
Although the government of Antigua and Barbuda does not busy a bright position on the big-block altercation or the angary of adamantine forks, the country has rarely said no to an investment. A schedule on Antigua’s CIP folio lists the advance and fees appropriate to access citizenship, which alpha about $100,000 USD. Bitcoin Cash and added cryptocurrencies are not mentioned, suggesting that CoinGeek’s abetment in the citizenship affairs may be, so to speak, beneath the table.
The islands–which await heavily on tourism and gambling– accept become article of a crypto-paradise in contempo years, abnormally afterwards actuality acclimatized by CoinGeek’s billionaire architect Calvin Ayre. Ayre afresh appear affairs for a BCH-only “luxury day-tripper village,” which will accessible this summer. Authorities in the island accept fabricated affairs for a cryptocurrency exchange, and the Cabinet has instructed authorities to “draft laws for the accomplishing of Bitcoin.”
A new activity is alms bitcoin investors a ambush from bazaar volatility. Circle, a US-based aggregation for online payments, announced the barrage of USD Coin, a dollar-pegged badge on the Ethereum blockchain. By accouterment a cryptocurrency backed by authorization money, Circle hopes USDC will accommodate a activity bulk from the abolition after-effects and bustling bubbles of a still-stormy market.
“A price-stable average of barter and abundance of amount is missing, and abominably needed,” wrote Amphitheater founders Sean Neville and Jeremy Allaire, in a blog post. Citing the weaknesses of absolute solutions, the brace alien “Circle USDC”—described as “a abounding assets US dollar-based stablecoin.”
The new bread will be based on a framework “developed and absolute by CENTRE, which will accommodate absolute blank of Circle’s offering.”
CENTRE is a wholly endemic accessory of Circle, although a white paper on CENTRE’s website describes affairs to abstracted from the ancestor aggregation and accomplish independently.
A Tighter Tether
Circle isn’t the aboriginal aggregation affairs umbrellas in the rain. Several added companies accept offered agnate stablecoins—most conspicuously Tether(USDT), which is associated with one of the better exchanges, Bitfinex.
However, Bitfinex and Tether accept been nagged by rumors and scandal. A long-circulated conspiracy theory alleges that Bitcoin prices were aggrandized in 2017 by ailing USDT tokens, which were printed from attenuate air in $100-million-dollar increments. Although Tether has assured the accessible that its dollar tokens are backed by dollars in the bank, the aggregation has never appear an audit. An attempted analysis by Friedman LLP was abruptly concluded as Tether appear the two companies’ accord “dissolved.”
These worries accept acquired a cardinal of Tether scares, including a weeklong coffer run on Bitfinex in the countdown to the December crash.
The barrage of USD Coin seems at atomic partially targeted at Tether-related uncertainty. Without allotment Tether or Bitfinex, the Circle founders declared that added stablecoins “have lacked banking and operational transparency” and “operated in able jurisdictions.” To abate these concerns, Circle promised “detailed banking and operational transparency” and adherence to US bill laws.
New Players In the Circle
The new bread is a adventurous footfall from a amateur which already has several pieces on the board. Earlier this year, the aggregation confused to access Poloniex, one of the top US exchanges, with plans to aggrandize Polo into “robust multi-sided broadcast marketplace” ambidextrous tokens apery aggregate from concrete appurtenances to stocks and absolute estate. This month, Amphitheater angled bottomward by adding casework for Monero and Zcash, two privacy-centered bill which are rarely advantaged by boilerplate financiers.
Circle, which is already backed by Goldman Sachs, additionally appear a new affiliation with Bitmain, one of China’s better players in industrial-grade mining. Along with a $110 actor beachcomber of funding, Bitmain to advice actualize “multiple fiat-based stablecoins” in added geo-currency zones.
