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Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin criticized El Salvador president Nayib Bukele on Friday for forcing businesses in the country to adopt bitcoin. Buterin also called out “Bitcoin maximalists” for supporting Bukele.

From Buterin calls out ‘Bitcoin maximalists’ for supporting El Salvador president.

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“However, additional policy measures, some requiring legislative change, are likely to be needed to mitigate the financial stability risks stemming from concentration in the provision of some third-party services.”

Measures should include an ability to designate some third parties as ‘critical’, meaning they would be required to meet ‘resilience’ standards which would be regularly tested.

From New Rules Needed to Deal With Risks From Cloud Computing: Bank of England:

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Turning first to Sopnendu Mohanty, chief fintech officer for the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Carr questioned what digital identity means to Mohanty, and about the most exciting developments being seen in the space.

Mohanty explained that throughout Singapore’s journey in the space, identity has been adopted in a digital-first manner in light of the digital economy.

He added that ‘Singpass’ is one of four elements of Singapore’s foundational digital infrastructure, comprising: the trusted digital identity, a trusted data exchange platform, a highly interoperable payment system, and a data consent system.

From Sibos 2021: Digital identity for an interoperable and accessible future:

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An F.B.I. affidavit described the Toebbes as employing somewhat sophisticated encryption methods but extremely sloppy practices as they communicated with who they thought were representatives of a foreign power but turned out to be F.B.I. agents.

From Navy Nuclear Engineer Attempted Espionage, FBI Says – The New York Times:

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They insisted on careful use of cryptocurrency and encrypted their messages, but they were lured into depositing the information, usually on small digital cards, at sites where they could be easily observed.

From Navy Nuclear Engineer Attempted Espionage, FBI Says – The New York Times:

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There are also about 6​ per cent of people who are effectively unbanked, and who needed cash to survive.

From Should banks be forced by law to supply cash to customers? | Stuff.co.nz:

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“In France, merchants face the prospect of fines if they do not accept cash,” the bank says.

New Zealand has been experiencing a “cash paradox” where, while the amount of cash used for transactions continued to fall, despite the amount of cash in the hands of the public continued to rise.

From Should banks be forced by law to supply cash to customers? | Stuff.co.nz:

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Walletmor, the British-Polish paytech start up, has announced that its payment implant will be rolled out across Europe, with nearly 400 people already using it. The biologically safe payment implant is installed under the skin, allowing the user to replace their bulky wallet with a convenient alternative to a credit card. Walletmor – with certified ISO bio-compatibility – is available to every resident of the European Economic Area for 199 Euro.

From Walletmor Introduces a Payment Implant Chip To Allow For Cardless Payments | The Fintech Times:

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“I personally think that Bitcoin is worthless,” Dimon said. “Our clients are adults, they disagree, that’s what makes markets, so if they want to have access to buy yourself Bitcoin, we can’t custody it but we can give them legitimate, as-clean-as-possible access.”

From StanChart’s Jose Vinals Says Reshoring Concerns Are ‘Overblown’: IIF Update – Bloomberg:

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US custodian bank State Street, which provides custody services to institutional investors, launched a digital finance division to expand into areas including crypto, central bank digital currencies, blockchain and tokenisation. Heading up the new division is Nadine Chakar, the bank’s head of global markets.

“We will help clients optimise the performance of their investments by looking to develop digital trading opportunities, a natural expansion of our platforms in foreign exchange trading, by adding new cryptocurrency pairs to our services. We can also leverage our expertise in securities finance and lending to explore how investors can borrow and lend cryptoassets,” said Ms Chakar, speaking at IBM’s Reinventing Financial Services virtual event on June 8. While digitisation will start with over-the-counter instruments to drive efficiencies, she believes that all financial instruments could become digitalised in future.

State Street is following in the footsteps of rival, BNY Mellon, which launched an enterprise digital assets unit in February, with the aim of building a multi-asset digital custody and administration platform for traditional and digital assets. Citi, BNP Paribas Securities Services and HSBC Securities Services are among other large custodians that have indicated their interest in entering this space.

From Custodians on the cusp of crypto acceptance – Editor’s Blog –:

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But she is not concerned that custodians like State Street will be disintermediated. “The digital asset industry will require reliable and potentially regulated providers of that post-trade data to power automated workflows in the form of smart contracts. Without this, automation opportunities presented by smart contracts simply will not work,” she says. “Regulated banks can offer these services and act as so-called ‘data oracles’. And importantly, this will create new business models and new business opportunities.”

From Custodians on the cusp of crypto acceptance – Editor’s Blog –:

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