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As the pandemic pushes banks into remote working, they are rethinking their approach to technology - and their IT priorities. Cloud-based 'soft turrets' enable traders to work from home in compliance with policies and procedures that apply in the office. Digital toolkits facilitate cross-regional communication through visualisations of trade flows. Covid-19 has emphasised the need to ensure data integrity - to remove errors and enable banking controls. Innovation projects are proceeding with a renewed focus on what works for trading desks and clients. Consultants warn big multi-year plans may be cut as banks target solutions that ensure home working is successful.

China's Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) - a public-private nationwide infrastructure project to spur mass adoption of blockchain technology - is setting up international portals in Turkey and Uzbekistan, following its September announcements to set up BSN portals in Hong Kong and South Korea. The BSN integrates frameworks such as Ethereum, Algorand, EOS, Polkadot, NEO, Tezos, Oasis, Hyperledger Fabric, ConsenSys Quorum, and Corda. It is also supported by cloud services, including Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft Azure.

"Red Date Technology, the company China tapped to manage its Blockchain Service Network (BSN) [is partnering] with South Korean blockchain company MetaverseSociety in what will be BSN's first expansion outside greater China... [This] reflects China's ambition to... build a global blockchain-based cross-cloud, cross-portal and cross-framework public infrastructure network."

"In fact, the ability to transact between devices that are not connected to a network at all either because the cloud is down, or there is no mobile network or there is no power because of a natural disaster is a key design requirement for the Chinese digital currency and it should be one for any other digital currency that intends to replace, or even complement, cash."

Visa launched its Global Crypto Advisory Practice to help clients and partners advance their crypto journeys. Through their work with more than 60 crypto platforms, Visa's global network of consultants and product experts have deep expertise to help financial institutions evaluate the crypto opportunity, develop concrete strategies, and pilot new user experiences and innovations like crypto rewards programs and CBDC-integrated consumer wallets.

"This use of tamper-resistant hardware means that when the mobile network has crashed because of a botched software upgrade, cloud services are down because of a DNS misconfiguration and the electricity is out because of high winds blowing trees down on power lines, you should still be able to send cash from your phone to a neighbour's phone via Bluetooth or UWB whatever and you should till be able to tap your CBDC contactless smart card on a shopkeeper's mobile phone to buy some food."

The Bank of Israel published an update on their CBDC proof-of-concept (PoC) experiments, including some that were based on distributed-ledger technology (DLT) infrastructure on the cloud, and the application of a Quorum blockchain based on Ethereum. They also examined a platform developed by VMware in which there would be a wallet that can hold "ordinary" digital shekels, the transfer of which is recorded in the ledger, and "private" digital shekels, the transfer details of which are not recorded openly, and where both sides to the transaction enjoy complete privacy as with cash payments. There would be a periodic (e.g., monthly) "budget" for payment using private shekels.

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emierates (CBUAE) has engaged with G42 Cloud and R3 as the infrastructure and technology providers respectively for its central bank digital currency (CBDC) implementation. The first phase, which is expected to complete over the next 12 to 15 months, comprises (1) the soft launch of mBridge to facilitate real-value cross-border CBDC transactions for international trade settlement, (2) proof-of-concept (PoC) work for bilateral CBDC bridges with India, and (3) PoC work for domestic CBDC issuance covering wholesale and retail usage.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision published a report that considers the implications of the ongoing digitalization of finance on banks and supervision, including application programming interfaces (APIs), artificial intelligence and machine learning, distributed ledger technology (DLT) and cloud computing. It also considers the role of big techs, fintechs and third-party service providers, and new business models.

Binance experienced issues with APIs and withdrawal processing due to network issues with Amazon Web Services on August 23. Amazon has confirmed to The Block that AWS has experienced a temporary outage in the Asia Pacific (Tokyo) region.

"We estimate the effect of Bitcoin ownership on the level of cash holdings of Canadian consumers. Bitcoin ownership positively correlates with cash holdings even after accounting for selection into ownership via a control function approach. On average, Bitcoin owners hold 83 percent (in 2018) to 95 percent (in 2017) more cash than non-owners. Focusing on the quantiles of cash holdings, we find that Bitcoin ownership has a highly nonlinear effect. For example, the difference in cash holdings between Bitcoin owners and non-owners in 2017 varies from 63 percent at the 25th quantile of cash to 176 percent at the 95th quantile of cash. Our results provide some evidence to reject the hypothesis that new digital currencies or technologies, such as Bitcoin, will lead to a decline in cash holdings."