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The US-based Bank Policy Institute (BPI) is raising concerns that a sizeable proportion of Circle's USDC stablecoin reserves could be parked at the Federal Reserve, despite Circle not having a central bank account. Since November, BlackRock has been managing about two-thirds of the reserve assets in a bespoke money market fund, the Circle Reserve Fund (CRF) , which invests mostly in U.S. short-dated Treasuries. The BPI claims that Blackrock has applied for the fund to access the Fed's overnight reverse repo (ON RRP) facility, which provides money funds and government-sponsored enterprises a standing option to invest overnight with the Fed at a fixed rate, currently 4.3%. This involves the fund buying Treasuries from the Fed, which are resold to the Fed at a future date at a slightly higher price. The net effect of the cash flows, with the transfer of money to the Fed, is not dissimilar to depositing the USDC reserve cash at the Federal Reserve. The use of the ON RRP by the CRF could effectively transform USDC into a "backdoor" synthetic central bank digital currency (CBDC) if all of the assets are parked there. https://bpi.com/will-usdcs-blackrock-money-fund-create-a-back-door-cbdc-give-usdc-an-account-at-the-fed-or-both/

None of us who favor strong encryption is saying that child exploitation isn't a serious crime, or a worldwide problem. We're not saying that about kidnapping, international drug cartels, money laundering, or terrorism. We are saying three things. One, that strong encryption is necessary for personal and national security. Two, that weakening encryption does more harm than good. And three, law enforcement has other avenues for criminal investigation than eavesdropping on communications and stored devices.

"The global rise in interest rates is finally beginning to percolate into the stablecoin sector. One of the effects of this rise is that centralized stablecoins, which by default pay 0% to holders, are introducing backdoor routes for paying interest to large customers. While large stablecoin holders may be benefiting from this trend, small holders of stablecoins are being ignored. Small stablecoin holders need to unite. By working together through a StablecoinDAO, their bargaining power vis-a-vis the big stablecoin issuers improves. They may be able to negotiate the same interest payments that large stablecoin customers are getting... A StablecoinDAO would work along the same lines as a high-interest savings ETF. People would deposit their stablecoins -- USD Coin, Gemini Dollar, Binance USD, USDP, Tether, Dai -- into a smart contract. In return they'd get a new stablecoin called, say, UniteUSD, which would be redeemable on demand into any of the DAO's underlying stablecoins. UniteUSD itself would be useful. It could be used for purchases, deposited into smart contracts, or traded on decentralized exchanges and whatnot. StablecoinDAO would have the authority to swap one underlying stablecoin out with a new one. That potential threat would give the DAO the necessary leverage to negotiate interest payments."

Legislation to "combat China, prevent cyberattacks, and protect U.S. intellectual property" was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives. The Creating Legal Accountability for Rogue Innovators and Technology (CLARITY) Act would prohibit the federal government from utilizing blockchain technology developed by China and other foreign adversaries to ensure these countries do not have a backdoor to access critical national security intelligence and Americans' private information. Firms listed include any parent companies or subsidiaries of China's Blockchain Services Network (BSN) and the affiliated Red Date Technology, and iFinex, the parent company of USDT issuer Tether.

Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) is planning its first major international expansion, its CEO told CNBC. The company, which has links to the Chinese government, will make the international version of its product open sourced to allow people to inspect the code and ensure there are no backdoors. BSN's international product called the the Spartan Network will eventually be made up of half a dozen public blockchains that do no operate with cryptocurrencies.

In Facebook's vision, the actual end-to-end encryption client itself such as WhatsApp will include embedded content moderation and blacklist filtering algorithms. These algorithms will be continually updated from a central cloud service, but will run locally on the user's device, scanning each cleartext message before it is sent and each encrypted message after it is decrypted... Of course alternatives like Signal will exist for those who don't want to be subject to Facebook's content moderation, but what happens when this filtering technology is built into operating systems?