— Covering digital currencies, precious metals and online payments
Central banks in the east, particularly china, have been increasing their gold stock for years. And now it seems Korea is joining the party as it purchased 14 tonnes of gold in November. This increases it gold reserves to 84.4 tonnes likely raising its ranking among central banks from 40th to 36th.
Read More about Korea buys gold to help it deal with “the international financial environment”
As Hyperinflation continues in Iran, it seems that some Iranians have discovered a simple way out of the mess imposed on them by international politics, Bitcoin.
Bloomberg’s Business Week spoke to a few Iranians who have found a solution in Bitcoin. “Iranians are resorting to virtual currency to move money into and out of the country in a way that Western authorities find hard to detect.”
Read More about Business Week: Dollar-Less Iranians Discover Virtual Currency
FATCA or the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act was enacted in March 2010 to improve tax compliance involving foreign financial assets and offshore accounts. The law requires foreign banks to report U.S. account holders to the IRS and in 2014 the IRS will start penalizing foreign banks for failing to comply.
Forbes’ Robert W. Wood explains that this could have serious consequences for Americans living abroad.
Read More about Forbes: FATCA Makes Foreign Banks Report Americans
WordPress.com is one of the world’s most popular websites, and this is amazing news for all fans of alternative currencies.
This is particularly exciting not only because an alternative currency is rapidly gaining online payment market share, but because the non-political, borderless nature of Bitcoin is being recognized and openly appreciated.
In fact these are among WordPress.com’s stated reasons for accepting the cryptocurrency. “Bitcoin has no central authority and no way to lock entire countries out of the network.”
Sabah, a Turkish new site, reports that the Prime Minister has said, “Why do we not switch then to a monetary unit such as gold?”
It would seem that Prime Minister Erdoğan is not pleased with the IMF as they are “going to rule the world based on the exchange rates of [the dollar]” and has “no intentions of working with the IMF again.”
Read More about The Turkish Prime Ministers Wants the IMF to Use Gold Instead of Dollars
Last week The Royal Canadian Mint announced that it will make an initial public offering of $100 million in silver exchange-traded receipts. This comes after the success of the Mint’s Gold ETR last year.
MineWeb reports that “The Mint will offer exchange-traded receipts, priced at $20 each, Proceedings from the C$100 million offering will be used to purchase silver bullion. … The silver ETRs will trade on the TSX and will be redeemable once a month for either cash or silver bullion.”
However, a careful read of the ETR’s prospectus, reveals that physically redeeming your silver is a complicated process that is subject to “suspension” and “Any declaration of suspension made by the Mint shall be conclusive.”
The Euro Pacific Bank is located in St. Vincent & the Grenadines which has established banking secrecy in statute making it one of the most private and secure places to do business and protect your assets.
Mr Schiff opened the bank to better serve his non-US investors as the current U.S. regulatory environment has made it very costly to assist international clients. Unfortunately, this means if you are an American citizen or resident you cannot open an account with the bank.
Read More about Peter Schiff’s Euro Pacific Bank Introduces a Silver Backed Debit Card
50+ merchants in the Bitcoin community have joined together to promote a Black Friday sale, “the biggest sale Bitcoin has ever seen.”
There has been dramatic growth in the number of online merchants who accept Bitcoin, but with an estimated 78% of bitcoins stagnant, Bitcoin Friday hopes to stimulate the Bitcoin economy and get some coins moving!
Those participating include Coinabul, Mt.Gox, bitpay, BitInstant, and more.
Read More about Bitcoin Merchants Launch the First “Bitcoin Black Friday”
The ECB recently released a report on “Virtual Currency Schemes”. It is, in parts, surprisingly well done. It includes a good definition of money, it recognizes that virtual currencies are ‘digital cash’, it discusses Austrian economics and even quotes Rothbard, Hayek and Mises! The guys that put this together are smart and understand “Virtual Currency Schemes” i.e. Bitcoin.
But the piece can be summed up with this line… Should Bitcoin ever truly catch on, it will damage the current banking system and threaten “financial stability”.
Read More about Bitcoin, The European Central Bank Sees You As a Threat to Financial Stability
Dwolla is an online and mobile payment system, similar to PayPal, however, Dwolla’s fee’s are much lower at $0.25 per transaction over $10, and transactions under $10 free of charge. Like PayPal, Dwolla is based on the US dollar. Un-like PayPal, you can use it to purchase bitcoins at exchanges such as Mt.Gox.
Dwolla has just announced their new mass payment system, appropriately titled MassPay.
