Coronavirus

Covid-19 Forces Indians to Embrace Digital Payments but Country Still Lacks Crypto Regulation

13/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

The global pandemic Covid-19 is forcing Indians to resort to digital payment platforms when settling bills as well as paying for groceries.

Before the Covid-19 outbreak, Indian citizens largely ignored a 2016 government decree that attempted to achieve the same, reports The Economic Times of India.

The news site reports that the value of transactions on the Unified Payments Interface, a platform created by India’s largest banks in 2016, reached an all-time high in June.

As the country’s infection rate and deaths associated with Covid-19 grew, Indians began switching to digital payment options “as people feared to handle banknotes” amid the pandemic.

Electronic fund transfers from banks, which had dropped in April as economic activity slowed, have seen a rebound. The Indian news site refers to a recent survey by Capgemini Research Institute observed a growing appetite for digital payments.

According to this survey:

Three-quarters of Indian consumers reported greater use of digital payments since the virus outbreak, and 78% expect to continue increasing their use in the next six months — the highest figures among 11 nations surveyed.

Increasing digital payment volumes are a fulfillment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of increased use of digital financial technologies.

In November 2016, India suddenly invalidated most of the country’s high-value currency notes. The twin objective of the demonetization was to curb corruption as well as to “help encourage a move toward digital commerce.”

The move was briefly successful as people struggled to get banknotes but soon Indians had reverted to cash as once the number of notes in circulation rose.

Indians prefer cash for various reasons, including to avoid paying higher taxes after a national sales tax was implemented in mid-2017 and higher charges from retailers.

Smaller stores that do not enjoy high volume sales often charge customers extra, to make up for what they must pay the service partners for electronic transactions.

Meanwhile, the Modi government, which is aiming for a billion digital transactions per day, still does not have an official stance on virtual or digital currencies issued technology companies.

In the past, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued adverse notices against the use of cryptocurrencies, and in 2018, it banned financial institutions from working with cryptocurrency-related businesses.

However, the country’s Supreme Court has since overturned that decree.

Still, Indian media reports in June suggest an announcement that clarifies India’s stance on cryptocurrencies is imminent. Some crypto-related businesses are hopeful the government will not ban cryptocurrencies.

Do you think Indian digital payments will continue to grow once the Covid-19 has dissipated? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

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Renters Threaten US Real Estate Market, 20 Million Americans Face Eviction

08/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

The aftermath of the coronavirus-provoked business shutdowns in the United States caused a number of market observers to focus on the U.S. real estate and rental markets. As the federal moratorium on evictions reaches its expiry, a recent Aspen Institute report reveals that 20 million renters or around 20% of 110 million American citizens who rent, will possibly face eviction by September.

Over a week ago, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the pending U.S. real estate crisis, as last month’s data had shown 4.3 million mortgage delinquencies, while commercial properties have also started to sink in value as well. American citizens, economists, and market analysts have been worried about the rental and mortgage sector ever since Covid-19 made its way to the United States.

Now the latest findings from the Aspen Institute’s recent report indicate that homeowners who rent are going to feel more pain in the coming months. The report estimates that roughly 20 million tenants could face evictions at the end of September, and the findings blame issues on the post-Covid-19 economy.

“20 million renters are at risk of eviction; policymakers must act now to mitigate widespread hardship,” explains the Aspen Institute’s authors Katherine Lucas Mckay, Zach Neumann, and Sam Gilman.

The U.S. has around 110 million renters nationwide, and the Aspen Institute’s numbers are dependent on factors like the unemployment rate, cost of living, and the average American’s savings.

Another reason for the possible displacement stems from the federal moratorium on evictions expiry, which banned evictions in certain types of housing units up until July 25. Some of the local government enforced moratorium measures on the county level have expired in June. Moreover, a number of economists and analysts believe that the evictions will start to disrupt the $16 trillion U.S. commercial real estate market.

A few of the stricter American states have begun opening certain types of businesses in phases, as New York for example recently entered Phase 2, which allowed a number of different businesses to begin operating again. Other strict states, specifically in the Northeast are entering Phase 3.

States like Massachusetts will not allow Phase 4, which includes businesses like nightclubs and bars, until at the very least therapeutic action or a vaccine is available according to Governor Baker. These nationwide job losses, broken up by state-enforced phases, will affect the economy and have a domino effect on landlords who rent to tenants in the United States.

“I think it’s going to be a hail storm out there,” Jeffrey Citron, from the law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP said about the situation. “And I think, in most instances, it’s probably in the best interest of landlords to sit down and work with their tenants,” he added.

Despite the data from the Aspen Institute and the moratorium expirations, a number of real estate visionaries think ‘things will be fine,’ thanks to another round of government stimulus, otherwise known as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

One particularly hard-hit real estate and rental market will likely be New York and last Sunday, the U.S. government revealed the names of certain businesses that benefited from PPP. Reports say “multiple New York City real estate companies have locked down funds from the Paycheck Protection Program.” The stimulus funding from the federal government ($650 billion nationwide) could help rental and real estate markets fend off disaster.

In the media, Covid-19 has been a great excuse for the federal government to print money on a whim, and many Americans still believe it will help the economy. The biggest weight on commercial, multi-family, and single-family real estate will be the unemployment rate, which will lead to nationwide evictions. While certain investments like gold and a myriad of cryptocurrencies have weathered the storm, many investors think that real estate is an extremely risky investment right now.

What’s worse is, even with the strict state-enforced phase restrictions, “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary says that U.S. businesses are using “the pandemic as a cloak.” Essentially, O’Leary stressed on Wednesday’s “Squawk Box,” American companies wanted to relieve these employees well before the Covid-19 outbreak.

“They wanted to do this anyway, and they’re doing it under the cloak of, ‘Gee, I can’t open so I’m just going to do it,’” O’Leary said. “Their jobs will never come back. This is great for earnings in the S&P. It’s not great for employment.”

What do you think about the U.S. housing and rental market going forward? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

The post Renters Threaten US Real Estate Market, 20 Million Americans Face Eviction appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Food and Cash Shortages Push Cubans Toward Permissionless Cryptocurrencies

05/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

The Nation of Cuba is dealing with a national food crisis, as Venezuela has stopped offering aid to the small island nation. Moreover, the coronavirus outbreak has caused a shortage of cash couriers called “mules” and everyday items are becoming scarcer. Amid the crisis, a number of Cubans are resorting to leveraging cryptocurrencies like bitcoin to curb inflationary pressure, and the country’s first peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange Qbita launched last April.

The Covid-19 pandemic has ravaged the Cuban economy just like it has throughout the globe. However, Cuba has been hit much harder because of the country’s socialist regime. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean region and the state adheres to Communism and central planning. This gives the government an authoritarian position over the entire Cuban work force and the country’s means of production.

Leadership is quite tricky in Cuba, as Miguel Díaz-Canel is the President of the nation, but the people follow the rule of Raúl Castro’s guidelines. Raúl Castro is the official first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, and to this day, the first secretary is the most powerful leader in Cuba.

The country’s dealings with the coronavirus outbreak caused the island significant hardship and just recently, Venezuela has stopped offering the country assistance. The Venezuelan government used to be a lifeline for Cubans when it came to financial assistance.

The lack of help from Venezuela invoked the Communist Party to tell all Cuban residents to grow as much food as they can in order to survive. “Cuba can and must develop its program of municipal self-sustainability definitively and with urgency, in the face of the obsessive and tightened U.S. blockade and the food crisis COVID-19 will leave,” José Ramón Machado Ventura, deputy leader of the Cuban Communist Party, recently told the media.

In addition to the possible food crisis, Cubans have been seeing a shortage of “mules.” “Mules,” otherwise known as “Mulas,” are not delivering much-needed goods and cash to Cubans.

There’s an estimated 50,000 Cubans who consider themselves Mules, and they travel all around the world to bring cash and certain products. Mules account for close to half of the cash remittances in Cuba as well. Since Covid-19, however, Mules are now scarcer than the products and cash, as the outbreak has pretty much halted the Mule supply chain.

In order to curb the economic turmoil, a number of Cubans are resorting to bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. For instance, there are traders on the platform Localbitcoins stemming from Havana and Holguín.

A trader from San José de las Lajas sells bitcoin cash (BCH) with “no limits” for Western Union payments on the peer-to-peer exchange Local.Bitcoin.com. Further, a number of reports over the last two years show that a number of Cubans have been seeking out cryptocurrency solutions.

In September 2019, Reuters reported on Cuban residents “skirting U.S. sanctions by flocking to cryptocurrency, in order to shop online and send funds.” There is also a popular Telegram channel with thousands of Cubans called “Cubacripto,” where citizens gather to trade or discuss digital assets.

On April 23, 2020, Italian-Cuban entrepreneur, Mario Mazzola launched the country’s first peer-to-peer Bitcoin (BTC) exchange qbita.org. Mazzola has detailed that Cubans find the platform Localbitcoin’s Know Your Customer (KYC) rules too strict, and Paxful geo-blocks citizens from Cuba. Last April, Mazzola discussed the qbita launch with Decrypt.co columnist Jose Antonio Lanz.

“I think that in the future we’re going to see fewer people coming to crypto just to make some easy money,” Mazzola explained during the interview. “We’re going to see more people using Bitcoin for its true purpose: the freedom to move money and to have total control of your funds.”

Do you think cryptocurrencies like bitcoin can help with remittances and shortages? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

The post Food and Cash Shortages Push Cubans Toward Permissionless Cryptocurrencies appeared first on Bitcoin News.

US Real Estate Market Crisis: 4.3 Million Mortgage Delinquencies, Commercial Properties Sink in Value

27/06/2020 by Idelto Editor

The U.S. economy continues to look bleak as the American citizens and small businesses nationwide struggle to keep up with the government’s rules toward Covid-19 guidelines. In just 13 weeks, over 45 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits and many citizens cannot pay their mortgages. Numbers stemming from last month’s property data indicates that about 4.3 million Americans didn’t pay their mortgage notes.

While precious metals like gold and silver have done well, and crypto assets have held decently, real estate and property statistics have tumbled. The government in America has continued to ravage the U.S. economy by inducing a number of lockdown rules and shutting down businesses of all shapes and sizes.

The unemployment rate is practically parallel with the numbers from the Great Depression as 45.7 million are out of work. And that number only accounts for Americans who can file as members of the gig economy and other types of workers cannot collect.

Additionally, the extra $600 extra from the CARES Act unemployment benefits will end soon. “The (Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation) $600 can be paid for weeks ending no later than the week ending prior to Friday, July 31, 2020,” the U.S. Department of Labor told the public. “For all states except (New York), that is Saturday, July 25th. New York’s end date is Sunday, July 26th.”

With all the lockdown orders and business shutdowns, it’s put the U.S. real estate industry in jeopardy as home sales and commercial property values have plummeted.

This week it was reported that 4.3 million U.S. citizens didn’t pay their mortgages in May and it’s a huge spike. The number is up over 2 million since the end of March and the delinquency rate is reaching a point not seen since the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. Average citizens can’t pay their notes and apartment rentals in all major cities are not being contracted for the fall months.

Reports also show that the Covid-19 induced lockdown economy is like a wrecking ball smashing the $17 trillion U.S. commercial real estate market. The fact of the matter is real estate is not selling at all like it was 13 weeks prior to the virus outbreak.

Even office rentals are feeling the heat as a recent Morgan Stanley report disclosed dire pricing power losses for landlords. Morgan Stanley also expects the vacancy rate to rise all the way until 2024.

Barry Sternlicht from Starwood Capital detailed that he predicts office buildings to lose 40% of value, rents dropping extremely low, and a third of hotels going bankrupt in New York City.

The National Association of Realtors explained on Monday that “existing-home sales occurred at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 3.91 million,” which is the lowest in over a decade. Sales that stem from pre-owned houses dipped by 9.7% in May.

Many economists are fixated on the real estate market because they believe it could explode like it did after Lehman went bankrupt. Amid the telltale signs of a worsening U.S. real estate market, American first time home buyers (FTHBs) have been focused in on the real estate dips too.

As any American can see by scrolling through Zillow or any property listing platform that prices are being slashed left and right. Genworth Mortgage Insurance has published a report that shows FTHBs are taking advantage of the lows. The report shows that FTHBs didn’t do well in April but in May numbers were impressive.

Despite the gloom and doom from headlines that indicate 4.3 million Americans haven’t paid their mortgages, some realtors are still very optimistic.

“Home sales will surely rise in the upcoming months with the economy reopening, and could even surpass one-year-ago figures in the second half of the year,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR), in the organization’s report published on Monday.

Another thing analysts are watching is pending home sales as there have been a number of homes sitting in limbo. It’s quite possible that due to the lockdown and business shutdown guidelines that many people who were about to purchase a home 13 weeks ago cannot now. Analysis shows that a number of transaction closings, settlement, and pending sales nationwide continue to remain frozen as well.

What do you think about the U.S. real estate market? Let us know in the comments below.

The post US Real Estate Market Crisis: 4.3 Million Mortgage Delinquencies, Commercial Properties Sink in Value appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Demand for Charter Cities During Covid-19 Pandemic Grows Exponential – People Desire Semi-Autonomous Zones

17/06/2020 by Idelto Editor

For quite some time now, a number of libertarians, bitcoin evangelists, and blockchain entrepreneurs have been promoting the idea of charter cities and seasteading concepts. One such project, Pronomos Capital, has raised $9 million from heavyweight investors like venture capitalist Peter Thiel. Pronomos was incorporated in August by Patri Friedman, as the project is attempting to start sovereign charter cities in developing countries.

Bitcoiners and Libertarians Embrace Charter Cities In Order to Create Semi-Autonomous Zones Worldwide

In April 2019, the seasteaders and bitcoin entrepreneurs Chad Elwartowski and Supranee Thepdet, had their floating two-story home removed by the Thai navy. The floating seastead off the coast of Phuket lasted for some time but eventually, Elwartowski and Thepdet were coerced and threatened for living out at sea near the Thai borders. The concept of seasteading is similar to homesteading except the permanent dwellings exist at seas and outside a government territory. Another sect of seasteading and homesteading is the formation of Charter Cities.

Charter cities have existed for quite some time in the U.S., the U.K., and other regions around the world. The characterization of a charter city is defined by a charter document and the city’s rules are not necessarily defined by general law. A project called Pronomos Capital aims to take this concept to a more enlightened level by creating charter cities that leverage voluntary governance. The Pronomos project comes from the mind of Patri Friedman, the well known libertarian and Seasteading Institute founder. Patri Friedman is also the grandchild of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman.

Essentially, Pronomos is starting charter cities on vacant land parcels in a number of developing countries. Sources say Pronomos Capital is seeking out regions in Panama, Ghana, Nigeria, and the Marshall Islands. The project will allow international firms to set up shop in the semi-autonomous zones and the project is maintained much like a venture fund. So far, Pronomos has raised $9 million in venture capital and a large chunk of the investment stemmed from Peter Theil. Other investors include Bitcoin.com’s Roger Ver, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, and the entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan. Pronomos Capital has a very impressive team of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who have made names for themselves through various ventures.

Pronomos also has a number of well known advisors like the former vice president of the Theil Foundation, Michael Gibson, angel investor Balaji Srinivasan, Naval Ravikant the founder of Angellist, the executive chairman at Thumbtack Jonathan Swanson, Prime Movers Lab founder Dakin Sloss, Proudengineers CEO Taavi Kotka, and the academic director of the Institute for Competitive Governance Tom W. Bell. Other charter city proponents include Ryan Rzepecki who recently sold his electric scooter startup to Uber for $200 million, and the cofounder of Flutterwave, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji.

The coronavirus outbreak and economic calamity worldwide, has caused a lot of demand for defunding existing corrupt systems, seasteading concepts, and charter city ideas like Pronomos Capital. During the last month, Friedman told the media that there is “a lot of interest” from people emailing him about charter cities and how to get started. “People in tech hubs like Silicon Valley are looking at other places to live that are cheaper, safer and handled better,” Friedman stressed on June 15, 2020. “Whether that is a single-family seastead, or moving to one of the tax-friendly countries and working on building charter cities for founders around the world,” the founder of the Seasteading Institute and Pronomos project added.

During times of massive cultural change, the creation of new cities paved the way for exponential economic and social growth. The Hanseatic league connected over 200 city states who used their political independence to improve on governance.https://t.co/TkfwGkvWQe

— Pronomos Capital (@PronomosVC) May 15, 2020

Talent City and Panama’s Seabnbs

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and his team of colleagues have dedicated their efforts to a place called “Talent City” in Calabar, Nigeria. The organization aims to leverage the country’s free trade zones so it can “unlock Africa’s digital economy.” Just recently on June 1, Aboyeji discussed Talent City on the Charter Cities Podcast episode 5. By July, Aboyeji hopes that they will have an online showroom that will give people an idea of what life would look like if they lived in Talent City.

“The idea is to build anticipation and then you admit a bunch of people at the same time,” Aboyeji highlighted. “A minimum number is about 100 people and we would post all these things that make provisions for them and then selectively start to add newer and newer and newer groups of people as we go along.” As far as the first residents moving to Talent City, Aboyeji hopes it will be around November “before the carnival season” in Nigeria.

Aboyeji thinks there’s a large role for a technology hub and manufacturing in the city, as the team has put a lot of effort into a gas power plant. “We spent considerable amount of money building a gas power plant,” the cofounder of Flutterwave said. “We know how to do it and we can power the area. I’m more confident about manufacturing and all that also coming into the zone, given its natural advantages, including the fact that it has a port right next to it.”

The bitcoin entrepreneurs Elwartowski and Thepdet have left the Thailand region and are now located near Linton Bay, Panama near an uninhabited island. Elwartowski details that he and Thepdet “never wanted to ‘create a nation’ as Thailand accused us of.” For now, they are simply building a region of collective seasteading pods they call “Seabnbs.” Elwartowski explained on Monday that he and Thepdet are planning to create 30 seapods and sell them on the open market.

What do you think about all the libertarians and bitcoin evangelists creating seasteads and charter city concepts? Let us know in the comment section below.

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