The Fall of Medici Bank: Lessons on Fractional Reserve Banking From 15th Century Italy

Amid the banking chaos of the 21st century, some are looking back more than 600 years ago, to the Medici Bank — one of the most powerful banks of its time. It established its business and became one of the most respected banks in Europe during its prime, and the prominent Italian family of bankers … Read more

A Look at the Fed’s Recent Custodia Bank Denial and the Central Bank’s Push Back Against Narrow Banking

Over the past century, the number of American banks has significantly decreased, dropping from 30,000 banks in 1921 to 4,997 U.S. banks in 2021, according to data from the Federal Reserve. Recently, the U.S. central bank denied Custodia Bank of Wyoming, a financial institution that holds $1.08 for every dollar deposited by customers. Although there … Read more

Stablecoins Are Crypto’s Version of Fractional Reserve Banking

Stablecoins provide much sought after stability in the volatile crypto markets. They are sometimes even said to affect the price of bitcoin in drastic fashion. Tether (USDT) in particular continues to be widely scrutinized for this, with recent lawsuits about conflicts of interest and price manipulation being hotly contested. More important to dive into, however, … Read more

The World Bank’s Blockchain Bond Is Just a Fancy Way of Selling Debt

Last year the World Bank and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia announced a permissioned Ethereum-based blockchain to facilitate the end-to-end issuance of bonds between financial partners. The Bretton Woods-created financial institution hopes to make debt capital markets far more efficient with a bank-to-bank blockchain network. At the same time, the World Bank’s bond scheme has … Read more

How Coinbase Quietly Became the World’s Biggest Bitcoin Bank

On August 15, the San Francisco-based digital currency exchange Coinbase announced that it had acquired the cryptocurrency custody service Xapo’s institutional branch. The business move puts Coinbase in the limelight, making it the largest custodial service for digital assets worldwide, with more than $7 billion under custody. Also Read: Hong Kong Protest Leader Hopes to … Read more

Bizarro World: Federated Sidechain Technology Promoted Over Nakamoto Consensus

On Oct. 10, Blockstream revealed that the company’s new product, Liquid, generated its first block on Sept. 27 and noted that a lot of the crypto-economy’s “biggest players” participated. Since Blockstream announced the launch of its federated sidechain, the technology has been praised by some and dismissed by others. Also read: BCH Devcon Streamlines Bitcoin Innovation … Read more

Research Paper Declares Bitcoin Compliant With Shariah Law

Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are intriguing because they are very different from the traditional financial systems we use today. One particular subject people have pondered is whether or not bitcoin complies with the religious law that forms a part of Islamic tradition — otherwise known as Shariah Law. This week a microfinance firm based in Indonesia, Blossom Finance, … Read more

The Satoshi Revolution – Chapter 3: Do You Want a Government Fiat Crypto? (Part 4)

The Satoshi Revolution: A Revolution of Rising Expectations. Section 1 : The Trusted Third Party Problem Chapter 3: Trying to Undo Satoshi by Wendy McElroy Do You Want a Government Fiat Crypto? (Chapter 3, Part 4) It is the ability of governments to acquire money without direct taxation that makes modern warfare possible, and a … Read more