Banco do Brasil has announced that citizens can now pay their taxes with cryptocurrency. According to a post on their official website, Brazil’s oldest bank stated that this financial development is possible via a partnership with Bitfy, a popular blockchain solutions company with investment in BB’s Corporate Venture Capital Program (CVC).

Through this collaboration, Brazilians holding cryptocurrencies with Bitfy can now easily pay their taxes, fees, and governmental obligations using their assets. The mechanism behind this service is similar to customers paying for a ticket by capturing a barcode. Using the Bitfy app, taxpayers need only select their preferred cryptocurrency for payment and then scan a barcode before going on to confirm payment.

United Arab Emirates Central Bank has launched a Financial Infrastructure Transformation (FIT) program which intends to enhance the pace of digital transformation of the financial services sector. Specifically, this initiative aims to promote digital transactions and encourage innovation in the space. This, in turn, will sharpen UAE’s prospects to become the financial and digital payment hub.

Explicitly, the program has nine initiatives and launching a central bank digital currency is one among them. According to the official statement, the CBDC will be launched to cater to the gaps and hindrances associated to international payments. Additionally, it will “help drive innovation for the domestic payments,” according to the statement.

The CBDC will be launched for both cross border and domestic use.

Read full press release. 

Once again, Dubai has been at the forefront of driving cryptocurrency adoption. 

According to a recent reports, the Canadian University Dubai (CUD) will start accepting tuition payments in cryptocurrency. The university’s existing as well as prospective students will be able to pay their fees with cryptocurrencies. 

The university's official Twitter account tweeted: 

“CUD is now accepting Crypto as a payment method and have adapted to the transforming digital payment space.”

Source: Watcher.Guru 

The Bank of England (BoE) and Britain's finance ministry think the UK is likely to need to create a central bank digital currency (CBDC) later this decade, the Telegraph newspaper reported on Saturday, citing an unreleased government report.

"On the basis of our work to date, the Bank of England and HM Treasury judge that it is likely a digital pound will be needed in the future," the Telegraph quoted BoE Governor Andrew Bailey and finance minister Jeremy Hunt as saying in the joint report.

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asked the BoE to look into the case for a CBDC in 2021 when he was finance minister, and in October financial services minister Andrew Griffith said Britain could not avoid the issue indefinitely.

A CBDC would allow a wider range of businesses - and potentially individuals - to hold electronic money in accounts directly with the BoE, potentially cutting out banks which have this right at present.

Source: Reusters 

Twitter chief Elon Musk has reportedly instructed his developers to build the platform’s payments system in such a way that crypto functionality can be added in the future, Cointelegraph reports. 

The payments feature will support fiat currencies to start but be built to accommodate cryptocurrencies should the opportunity arise.

Twitter has long teased bringing payments to the social media platform — forming part of Musk’s stated plan to make Twitter an “everything app.”

A bill has been introduced to the New York Senate that would make cryptocurrencies a legal form of payment in state agencies, Watcher.Guru reports. The legislation was set forth on January 26th and divulges changes to the state’s current financial law to introduce the use of cryptocurrencies.

The legislation states that the amendment would legally allow, “New York state agencies to accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment.” Moreover, the document dedicates several sections to the defining of cryptocurrencies under the introduced amendment. Specifically, allowing the acceptance of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash as payment options.

The bill states that “Each state agency is authorized to enter into an agreement with persons to provide the acceptance, by offices of the state, of cryptocurrency as a means of payment of fines, civil penalties, rent, rates, taxes,” and more civil duties. The bill is set to change the very landscape of integrated digital assets in one of America’s largest cities.