TL;DR: Welcome to In Case You Missed It (ICYMI), a daily crypto news update. Japanese lawmakers to issue digital yen proposals. US Fed examining the potential of a CBDC. Jack Dorsey invests in Transparent. Voatz answers Iowa Caucus voting disaster. Coronavirus outbreak starts to affect mining operations in China, and Michael Novogratz states XRP will have a bad 2020.

Japan Lawmakers Will Issue Digital Yen Proposals

A group of more than 70 lawmakers from Japan will issue their proposals for a digital yen today, as they grow uneasy about the influence that China’s new digital currency can have on world markets. Norihiro Nakayama, Vice Minister for Japan foreign affairs, declared lawmakers “sense the digital yuan is a challenge to the existing global reserve currency system and currency hegemony.” In addition of launching a digital yen, Nakayama called for closer cooperation between Japan and the US. “Without the U.S., we cannot counter China’s efforts to challenge the existing reserve currency,” he concluded.

US Federal Reserve is Studying the Potential of a CBDC

Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said they were studying the potential of issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC), according to Bloomberg. Brainard stated that “given the dollar’s important role, it is essential that we remain on the frontier of research and policy development regarding,” during a speech given to the Stanford Graduate School of Business. “We are conducting research and experimentation related to distributed ledger technologies and their potential use case for digital currencies, including the potential for a CBDC,” she declared, while acknowledging Libra was the catalyst for this debate.

Jack Dorsey Invests in Little-Known Crypto Startup

Jack Dorsey, founder and CEO of Twitter and Square, was involved in the $14+ million Series A funding of a crypto startup called Transparent, a developer of “cryptographic settlement solutions,” as they state in the PR announcement regarding the funding round. While the round was led by Pantera Capital, Square also had an important role. The objective of Square’s investment in this relatively unknown startup is not clear yet, but Transparent claims to have achieved several “demonstrations of on-demand settlement of USD between multiple financial services firms, fintechs, and banks.”

Voatz Voting Startup Says Iowa Caucus Voting App Does Not Constitute Blockchain Voting

Voatz, the blockchain voting company that has already conducted several elections with its mobile platform, answered to criticism over mobile voting during the Iowa Caucus and anger at the app used for this (Shadow) has fueled. “We are unable to comment on the technology used by The Iowa Democratic Party. We’ve never previously heard of the technology nor the company behind it. However, we want to make it clear that Voatz was not involved in the Iowa caucuses,” the company stated. Other companies also expressed disbelief about Shadow’s app using a blockchain-based system.

Coronavirus Outbreak Affecting Bitcoin Mining Operations

The outbreak of Coronavirus the Chinese population is facing is starting to affect mining operations located in Chinese suburbs, according to an article published by TrustNodes. Jiang Zhuoer, founder of bitcoin mining pool BTC.TOP, revealed one of their mines was shut down. Zhuoer stated, “Epidemic prevention in some places is already a mess. I have a mine in a remote suburb. The police came to force all the mining authorities and said that they would not resume work.” Mining operations in China are located in remote regions mostly unaffected by the outbreak, but this can change in the following months.

Michael Novogratz Says XRP Will Underperform Immensely Again This Year

Michael Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, stated he believes XRP will have a terrible 2020. Novogratz blamed Ripple, the company behind XRP products, for its centralization of the asset. “Ripple the company owns 60 billion of the coins, of the XRP. That’s a lot of it.” Last year XRP closed with a net loss of 46.3%. Ripple made significant changes to their OTC selling policies and has also raised $200 million in funding from several partners to keep fostering and accelerating the adoption of XRP around the world.

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