6th January 2024 > > Privacy coins & Nigeria.

tl;dr

Holding privacy coins may become problematic. Nigeria embellishes its reputation for being crypto friendly for the benefit of all its population, and by extension, the world at large.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

The Genesis wallet – the one that received the very first mining reward of 50 BTC from the Genesis block – has received an unexpected 27 BTC worth over $1mm:

https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/transactions/btc/d7db4f96a4059c8906b953677ce533493d7b9da0f854a21b99f5772910dd0a31

That is an annoying fat-finger mistake to make. It is not – as some have suggested – a reawakening of some early Satoshi Nakamoto related wallets.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Privacy coins

On the 2nd of January 2024 the CCC raised a warning about privacy coins, and the likelihood of delisting from centralised cryptocurrency exchanges. In particular:

“Binance did the same (delisted XMR) in May 2023 but reversed that decision. Now that there is an adult at the helm of Binance, rather than a man-child who thought that rules and regulations did not apply to him (where have we heard that before?), I expect a reversal of the reversal.”

As of yesterday, Binance has announced restricted trading of XMR, ZEC, and ZEN, three of the largest privacy coins, with the possibility of delisting soon.

Access to liquidity in privacy coins will become ever scarcer.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Nigeria

Having famously pivoted away from “banning” cryptos once it became clear that a ban is unenforceable, the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) has catapulted itself into the premier league of crypto friendly regulators.

On the downside there now exists eNaira, a CBDC without which the world would be a much better place.

On the upside, and consequently redeeming itself somewhat, the CBN has approved the ASC (Africa Stablecoin Consortium) to pilot a public blockchain stablecoin cNGN with a launch date of February 27th, 2024.

cNGN is backed by Naira reserves held at regulated banks and will operate cross-chain.

A prime use-case for cNGN is almost feeless remittances home from the Nigerian diaspora. Costs for sending money between countries can sometimes be as much as 10% of the total, particularly for small amounts which are deposited as cash to the sending institution (e.g. barber shops in Hackney are a prime example).

cNGN will remove this unfair tax-like charge on some of the poorest people in Nigeria, paving the way forward for the impoverished of all other nations.

Just one more example of how cryptos change the world immeasurably for the better, outside of the established, centralised mechanisms that work to enrich those who seek to take advantage of the poor and needy.