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The sudden growth of DeFi on Ethereum has pushed the blockchain to its limits, leading to transaction delays and inordinately high fees - making many Ethereum DeFi platforms simply unusable to regular users. As a result, many developers are opting to build their DeFi applications on other Platforms such as Polkadot. Polkadot is highly interoperable other blockchains (including Ethereum). Also, Polkadot has a block time of just six seconds and most transactions are considered final after less than a minute, and it can currently handle more than 1,000 transactions per second (tps).

The BSN is a cross-cloud, cross-portal, cross-framework global infrastructure network used to deploy and operate all types of blockchain applications. It provides a shared blockchain resource environment with the twin goals of reducing the cost of technology adoption and supporting interoperability between different blockchain applications (DApps).

Bianjie has launched the first open permissioned blockchain on China's Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN). This WenChang blockchain is powered by Cosmos' interoperable blockchain ecosystem. WenChang Chain is compliant with Chinese enterprise standards and offers permissioned controls. The global city node infrastructure, deployed by BSN, presents developers with a ready, open blockchain network so they can focus on refining the application layer, develop business logic, and deploy dApps in an easy and more cost-effective way.

"The term decentralized finance (DeFi) refers to an alternative financial infrastructure built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. DeFi uses smart contracts to create protocols that replicate existing financial services in a more open, interoperable, and transparent way. This article highlights opportunities and potential risks of the DeFi ecosystem. I propose a multi-layered framework to analyze the implicit architecture and the various DeFi building blocks, including token standards, decentralized exchanges, decentralized debt markets, blockchain derivatives, and on-chain asset management protocols. I conclude that DeFi still is a niche market with certain risks but that it also has interesting properties in terms of efficiency, transparency, accessibility, and composability. As such, DeFi may potentially contribute to a more robust and transparent financial infrastructure. "

Banco Central do Brasil is running a series of public webinars to debate the general guidelines for a Brazilian central bank digital currency (CBDC), and discuss use cases that can benefit from a digital Real and the most appropriate implementation technologies. There will be seven sessions that will run from July 29 to November that will cover potential applications, identity and data issues, offline capacity, smart contracts, operational issues, cross border integration, platform technology and interoperability with existing payment rails.

This report, prepared by the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures, the Bank for International Settlements, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, analyses how central bank digital currency (CBDC) could facilitate enhanced cross-border payments, and how practical efforts are taking these considerations forward. It concludes that facilitating international payments with CBDCs can be achieved through different degrees of integration and cooperation, ranging from basic compatibility with common standards to the establishment of international payment infrastructures. The analysis highlights both the need for multilateral collaboration on macro-financial consequences as well as the importance of interoperability between CBDCs.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) published a white paper on its e-CNY central bank digital currency (CBDC). Among other things, it confirmed that it will be issued by the central bank and commercial banks merely distribute it, so it is not a "synthetic" CBDC. The paper outlines the primary objectives of the digital yuan, the first being to ensure financial inclusion and provide a public good digital cash while physical cash usage declines. The second objective is to promoting fair competition and interoperability between different forms of digital cash. It differentiates the e-CNY from other digital payment tools as being legal tender, not requiring a bank account, supporting offline payments and providing managed anonymity. The whitepaper states that the CBDC is "mainly" designed for domestic use, but it will be usable across borders, while acknowledging monetary sovereignty issues and the principle of "no detriment". http://www.pbc.gov.cn/en/3688110/3688172/4157443/4293696/2021071614584691871.pdf

Accenture, SAP and R3 will work together to build a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system that will allow for integration and interoperability between DLT-based and classic government-issued payments and settlements. The prototype design uses currency tokens to facilitate end-to-end settlement.

The Reserve Bank of India announced fresh steps to push digital payments in India, including removing charges on online fund transfer system National Electronic Funds Transfer, introducing interoperable system such that FASTags can be used to pay parking fees, fuel, among other measures.

This report discusses some potential design choices and includes a non-exhaustive list of questions that wholesale digital token developers may need to consider. Important considerations include availability; issuance and redemption; access; underlying assets/funds and claims; transfer mechanism; privacy and regulatory compliance; and interoperability. Depending on the design choices made, there could be a number of implications for safety and efficiency of the token arrangement.

Blockchains may proliferate and compete across many different use cases, they would benefit from a common interoperable fiat stablecoin for major currencies that is anchored in a full reserve, transparent and compliant governance scheme.

Key findings suggest that mobile money may be a positive use case for CBDC, but it is not without potential risks. The application of retail CBDC to mobile money has the potential to foster greater interoperability, improve payment efficiency, facilitate cost-saving gains by minimising reconciliation complexity and notional costs, as well as reduce the key payment risks that are typically associated with mobile money.

Deutsche Bank Securities Services and Hashstacs Pte Ltd (STACS) will collaborate to jointly explore a proof-of-concept (POC) related to the technological and practical feasibility of digital assets. The POC will explore interoperability, liquidity, cross-border connectivity, and smart contract templates, including the support of sustainability-themed digital bonds. STACS is focused on capital markets use cases, such as the trade lifecycle management of bonds, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) fintech, structured products, and exchange-traded derivatives (ETD).

Avalanche is an open-source platform for launching DeFi applications and enterprise blockchain deployments in one interoperable, highly scalable ecosystem. It is the first smart contracts platform that confirms transactions in under one second, supports the entirety of the Ethereum development toolkit and enables millions of independent validators to participate as full block producers. The testnet had over 1,000 full, block-producing nodes, breaking a world record. In addition to supporting sub-second finality, Avalanche is capable of throughput orders of magnitude greater than existing blockchain networks (4,500+ transactions/second), and safety thresholds well-above the 51% standards of other networks.

Senior Paypal executives revealed further details about its plans to aggressively push into the crypto sector next year during the firm's Q3 2020 earnings call, including plans to support central bank digital currency (CBDC). PayPal's chief executive said that through its scale and prominence, the company will "help shape the utility of CBDCs" including facilitating interoperability with existing payment rails and fostering acceptance among merchants. Shulman also described the legacy financial system as "not working" for many ordinary people.

The World Trade Organization and Trade Finance Global have published their latest taxonomy of blockchain projects in international trade. Many projects that were at an exploratory stage a year ago have matured and reached the production stage. This publication maps 44 projects related to trade finance, insurance, know your customer, shipping/logistics and supply chain, digitalization of trade documents and trade processes, among others, and assesses their level of maturity. A new section provides an overview of projects that work towards creating digital standards relevant for trade to drive digital interoperability.

Avalanche is an open-source platform for launching DeFi applications and enterprise blockchain deployments in one interoperable, highly scalable ecosystem. It is the first smart contracts platform that confirms transactions in under one second, supports the entirety of the Ethereum development toolkit and enables millions of independent validators to participate as full block producers. In addition to supporting sub-second finality, Avalanche is capable of throughput orders of magnitude greater than existing blockchain networks (4,500+ transactions/second), and safety thresholds well-above the 51% standards of other networks.

Mastercard launched a virtual testing environment for central banks to evaluate CBDC use cases. The testing platform will enable central banks to simulate the digital currency's behavior prior to deployment. It invites collaboration from other stakeholders on the project such as central banks, commercial banks, and tech and advisory firms, to assess CBDC tech designs, validate use cases and evaluate interoperability with existing payment rails available for consumers and businesses.

Mastercard announced a proprietary virtual testing environment for central banks to evaluate central bank digital currency (CBDC) use cases. The platform enables the simulation of issuance, distribution and exchange of CBDCs between banks, financial service providers and consumers. Central banks, commercial banks, and tech and advisory firms are invited to partner with Mastercard to assess CBDC tech designs, validate use cases and evaluate interoperability with existing payment rails available for consumers and businesses today.

Avalanche, one of the many blockchain networks that claim to be faster, cheaper and more capable than Ethereum, announced the "Avalanche-Ethereum Bridge," a way to transfer Ethereum tokens to the Avalanche blockchain and vice versa. Avalanche's bridge is powered by ChainSafe, a blockchain interoperability protocol produced by ChainBridge. ChainBridge built Avalanche's bridge using funds from the Avalanche-X grants program. Avalanche's mainnet launched in September after raising $60 million, $42.5 million of which came from a public token sale.