The Marshall Islands is gearing to release a digital currency — known as “SOV” — this year, although officials said on Friday that much work remains to be done to alleviate concerns of US regulators and a launch date has yet to be set.
“We plan to launch SOV this year,” said Barak Ben-Ezer, chief executive officer of Neema, the Israel-based company that is partnering with the Marshall Islands government to develop the digital currency.
A primary issue for the launch is that following the boom in 2017 and early last year, the value of the cryptocurrency market has plummeted.
“We are working day and night to prepare the foundations of the SOV initial coin offering, with the goal of being ready to launch once positive momentum is back in the markets,” Ben-Ezer said.
“It will be done once all stakeholders are convinced that SOV is ready, risks have been mitigated and momentum is building,” he added.
Neema and the Marshall Islands are working through a multitude of US regulatory concerns as well as the technological and logistical side of issuing the SOV using blockchain technology.
The Marshall Islands, a tiny Pacific atoll nation with a population of just 55,000, passed legislation a year ago to develop digital currency as legal tender.
The plan has since been criticized by the US Department of the Treasury, the IMF and bank officials in the Marshall Islands.
The plan could negatively affect existing banks and money laundering, the officials have said, but Ben-Ezer said that once fully developed, SOV would be one the safest monetary systems in the world.
The US Treasury has concerns about “anonymous digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, [which] are often used for illicit purposes by people who want to conceal their identity,” Ben-Ezer said.
However, with SOV, every account would be fully identified and buyers would be checked against the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, “so only legitimate, law-abiding people can use the SOV,” Ben-Ezer added.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS