Savannah Fortis
Mainstream crypto and crypto-based services adoption continues, with more companies bridging traditional financial (TradFi) solutions with decentralized financial (DeFi) solutions.
In an announcement on Feb. 22, a new pilot program launched between the crypto exchange, Binance and credit card service company Ingenico, allows in-store crypto payments via Binance Pay. Currently, the initial test of this offering is only available on Ingenico Axium payment terminals in France.
According to the announcement, the program accepts more than 50 cryptocurrencies. Initially, merchants will be paid in cryptocurrency; however, a crypto-to-fiat solution allowing merchants to receive fiat payments is set to pilot in Q2 of 2023.
The France pilot is going live with two merchants, Le Carlie and Miss Opéra, in the hospitality and retail sectors.
Additional European countries, where Binance is an approved crypto operator, are next on the list for service expansion. Binance is approved to operate in France, Italy, Lithuania, Spain, Cyprus, Poland and Sweden.
Typically, in-store devices require some form of integration to begin utilizing cryptocurrencies. However, the new solution claims to be an “all-in-one” device, making onboarding easier for merchants and consumers.
Jonathan Lim, head of Binance Pay and Binance Card, called the all-in-one device a “new way to approach the market” and said it will “accelerate access to consumers.”
Over the last year, Binance has worked on various payment solutions worldwide. It recently partnered with Mastercard to launch a prepaid crypto card in Brazil after successfully launching it in Argentina in August 2022.
Other companies have also tried bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3 payment systems. On Feb. 10, Bit2Me announced a partnership with Mastercard to launch a debit card that offers crypto cashback.
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Judith BannermanQuist
Google’s cloud computing arm has added another string to its Web3 bow, with a new partnership to see it becoming a network validator on the Tezos blockchain.
On Feb. 22, the Tezos Foundation, a Swiss nonprofit foundation supporting the Tezos blockchain, announced it had teamed up with Google Cloud to allow customers of the cloud computing business to deploy Tezos nodes and build Web3 applications on the blockchain.
Tezos is a blockchain-based smart contract platform used to power decentralized applications, similar to Ethereum, Cardano and others. Corporates that have used Tezos include gaming giant Ubisoft and the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
This partnership also will make it possible for companies and developers to host and deploy RPC (Remote Procedure Call) nodes for Web3 applications using the Tezos blockchain and Google Cloud infrastructure. The announcement said:
“The Tezos Foundation will provide new and existing Google Cloud customers access to its corporate baking program. Through the program, Tezos will offer Google Cloud customers that are interested in building Web3 applications, easy deployment of nodes and indexers on the Tezos protocol.”
The partnership is also set to provide select Tezos incubator startups with Google Cloud credits and mentorship via the Google for Startups Cloud Program.
“At Google Cloud, we’re providing secure and reliable infrastructure for Web3 founders and developers to innovate and scale their applications,” said James Tromans, Engineering Director, Web3 at Google Cloud.
Meanwhile, Tezos Foundation Chief Commercial Officer Mason Edwards said the partnership was a step toward achieving institutional adoption and mass-market opportunities for Web3 technology.
In January 2022, Google Cloud established a dedicated team for digital assets, aimed at facilitating the growth and advancement of the blockchain ecosystem. The team’s primary objective was to assist Google Cloud clients in generating, exchanging, preserving value and introducing novel products on blockchain-powered platforms
In October, the Near Foundation unveiled a new collaboration between Near Protocol and Google Cloud. The partnership was set to offer infrastructural support for Near’s Web3 startup platform, Pagoda.
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Ezra Reguerra
Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather and other celebrities are looking to convince a judge to dismiss another revised attempt to hold them liable for allegedly promoting EthereumMax (EMAX) without proper disclosure.
The celebrities asked a California federal judge to dismiss a second amended complaint from EthereumMax investors filed in December 2022. According to the defendants, the renewed allegations push the “same basic theory” forward that the court had previously dismissed.
The investors’ class-action lawsuit runs on the premise that the EthereumMax team worked with the celebrities to sell EMAX tokens to investors in what they describe as a “pump-and-dump” scheme.
However, the defendant’s motion to dismiss the renewed complaint argues that the theory revolving around celebrities advertising the EMAX tokens to pump its price artificially was already rejected by the court since the tokens do not have any value apart from what the market is willing to pay for. They wrote:
“The Court otherwise dismissed the prior complaint in full due to fundamental flaws. The addition of new claims, Defendants, and over 100 pages of largely irrelevant allegations does not cure the defects.”
In addition, the motion suggests that the investors’ new theory is that they held onto EMAX due to misrepresentations from the celebrities. However, the motion to dismiss argues that the investors “suffered no injury from merely holding onto the tokens.“
Meanwhile, Kardashian has already been fined once because of EthereumMax promotions on social media. On Oct. 3, 2022, the American socialite reached a $1.26 million settlement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after failing to disclose that she received a $250,000 payment to promote the crypto project.
The SEC has recently issued a warning to celebrities who promote crypto. On Feb. 17, the SEC reminded stars that the law requires them to disclose how much they are getting paid and from whom when promoting investment in securities.
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This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
