Europe
Welcome to another weekly blockchain news roundup from around the world. Here, we present to you all the latest Bitcoin news, continent by continent and country by country.
United Kingdom
MP Calls for Council Tax Payments Using Bitcoin: UK Member Parliament (MP) Eddie Hughes, a pro-crypto voice in the parliament has called for paying of council taxes using Bitcoin and Ethereum. The move may have rattled some feathers of his other colleagues, most of whom have a very conservative attitude towards cryptocurrencies.
Council taxes are charged for residents in the UK where it is used to fund local services in their localities. The tax is the second largest source of income for the government after income tax.
Hughes said:
“Only recently I met with the RNLI [Royal National Lifeboat Institution] which is now accepting charitable donations through cryptocurrency – if we can do that, what’s to stop us from being able to pay council tax and other bills with Bitcoin?”
While regular crypto users may not immediately get to pay their council tax using Bitcoin, the statement will definitely put crypto back in the spotlight in the politics which is overdosed with Brexit these days.
France
Yellow Vest Protestors Go Crypto: The protesting yellow vests have now planned to introduce their own cryptocurrency called GiletJaunCoin. The movement has been in the spotlight in recent times as it spearheaded some of the biggest protests the country has seen in decades that amounted to a serious loss to public and private property.
While Gilet Jaunes themselves are not actually a political party, they are united in demanding more libertarian views including lowering taxes and calling for political reforms. But, due to lack of real focal persons, it is yet to be seen how the new coin will prevail in the market. As of now, it has achieved a block height of 40,000 and the total amount of hash rate is 2.4 Gh/s.
President Macron’s Reforms Result in Improving Blockchain Investment and Innovation: While the President of France Emmanuel Macron is under pressure these days from protesting groups led by Gillet Jaunes, his reforms have increased participation and expanded the blockchain industry in the country.
IBM alone with its blockchain investments is expected to bring as much as 1500 jobs to the market. Other measures like reducing the taxation of cryptocurrency gains taxes are also ensuring a steady stream of cryptocurrency related investment in the country.
Netherlands
Limburg Province Launches Crypto Community: Dutch southern province Limburg has partnered with blockchain company Belfius to create a cryptocurrency community in the area. The founders of this move believe that the move will encourage sustainability, community support, and police reforms. It will also help create useful supply chains in the 10 counties of the province.
While there is no fiat backup for the new cryptocurrency, it can easily be transferred from users’ wallets and can be used to provide a range of civic and other responsible activities.
In other news, the Dutch Central Bank is now taking a closer look at cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the country. The De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) is now reportedly trying to come up with new regulations for this space.
Russia
No Major Changes to Crypto Bill: The deputy prime minister of Russia Maxim Akimov has said that the recent cryptocurrency regulation bill put forward by the regulators has seen little changes in the content when it was sent to the government for approval.
The three separate bills “On digital financial assets”, “On crowdfunding” and “On digital rights” will eventually be included in the National Program of Digital Economy.
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