Martin Young
Residents in nations with volatile economies are more likely to receive their pay in cryptocurrency, according to global hiring platform Deel.
In its “State of Global Hiring Report” shared with Cointelegraph on Thursday, the firm found that despite the 2022 bear market, crypto represented 5% of all global payments withdrawn from the platform every month, up from 2% in the second half of 2021.
Residents in nations with volatile economic situations and currencies were most likely to make their payments in crypto, according to the report. These included countries in Latin America (LATAM) and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
Crypto withdrawals in the LATAM region represented 67% of the total, with EMEA countries at 24%. Those from the North American region represented just 7% of the total for crypto payments. The Asia Pacific region was even lower with just a 2% share of the whole.
In terms of asset type, Bitcoin (BTC) remained the crypto of choice, making up 47% of the total. The second choice of digital asset for payments was Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) with 29%, followed by Ether (ETH) at 14%. Tether (USDT) did not make the list.
Shannon Karaka, head of expansion ANZ of Deel, told Cointelegraph that in general, “we find that people typically only withdraw part of their pay in crypto, which could mean they are still using it as a long-term investment vehicle as well,” before adding:
“From what we’ve seen in the field, getting paid in crypto is most attractive to three main groups of people: those who use the tool to hedge against local currency instability, those working in jurisdictions with dated local banking systems that can slow down payroll and those who are adding some crypto coin to their investment portfolio. The majority of our crypto withdrawals are coming out of LATAM and EMEA, which is likely driven by the first two use cases.”
Deel sourced the data from over 100,000 cross-border worker contracts on the platform between January and July 2022. The firm helps businesses compliantly hire, onboard and pay people in different countries. It noted that LATAM tops the list of regions hiring internationally.
Surging inflation is a concern for many countries in the Latin American region. Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Paraguay all have double-digit inflation, according to Trading Economics.
Diminishing purchasing power using their own fiat currencies is likely to have influenced the increase in crypto payments to regional workers.
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Gareth Jenkinson
Global cryptocurrency wallet and exchange platform Crypto.com is adding Google Pay as a payment option for Android users to buy cryptocurrencies. Google Pay is estimated to have over 100 million users who could make use of the latest payment gateway to cryptocurrency markets.
Once the integration goes live next week, users that have set up their Google Pay accounts to be linked with a credit or debit card will be able to choose the payment option when on the Crypto.com app. The exchange lists over 250 cryptocurrencies accessible to some 50 million users worldwide.
Crypto.com has been in the headlines in recent months as the company acquired licenses to operate in a handful of countries in quick succession. Italy is the latest country to give the firm the green light to begin serving customers within its borders, following regulatory approval in Greece, Singapore and Dubai.
The integration of major payment systems into cryptocurrency wallet and exchange platforms has picked up pace over the past two years. Google Pay indicated its intent further explore the cryptocurrency space in January 2022 with the appointment of former PayPal executive Arnold Goldberg to head up their payments division.
This came after an eventful 2021 for Google Pay and the cryptocurrency space, which saw integration with Gemini in April offer the same functionality Crypto.com has now introduced. A partnership with Coinbase in June 2021 allowed users to pay for goods and services through Google Pay using their Coinbase Card.
Google Pay also joined forces with Bakkt in October 2021, while Nexo announced Google Pay integration with the launch of its cryptocurrency-backed Mastercard cards in April 2022.
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David Attlee
Blockchain-based metaverse and Web3 platforms have decided to form an Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3 (OMA3) to overcome the interoperability challenges of the industry. Four core principles of the Alliance are said to be transparency, inclusiveness, decentralization and democratization.
The joint organization was established by Alien Worlds, Animoca Brands, Dapper Labs, Space, Superworld, The Sandbox (SAND), Upland and Voxels. As the official announcement specifies, the means to overcome interoperability challenges would be focused on proposing standards and facilitating collaboration between various stakeholders of Web3 and other industries.
OMA3 will be established as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to ensure a governance system that is “transparent and user-centric.” It will focus its efforts on specific metaverse-related topics, such as standards for nonfungible tokens (NFTs), protocols, transferable identity, portals between virtual worlds, mapping and indexing.
The Alliance members intend to join the recently announced Metaverse Standards Forum — a constellation of Web3 companies, coordinating requirements and support for existing standards and developing standards relevant to the Metaverse.
The Sandbox co-founder Sebastian Borget made an example of a digital avatar to illustrate the issues OMA3 is going to work on:
“We want your Avatar can be more than just virtual representation, and also carries your reputation as anyone can see on-chain which NFTs you hold, earned, created or bought, the full history of transactions and as well hopefully the progression/actions you have contributed to throughout time.”
The announcement promises to reveal further details of the OMA3’s outline during the Global NFT Summit in London on Fri.
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This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
