The Past Week in Crypto Adoption: September 8th to 15th

Shortly after El Salvador officially started to use Bitcoin as legal tender, Ukraine has officially legalized Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. As part of the country’s increased efforts to place itself as a digitalized country with an advanced digital economy, Ukrainian President Zelensky will sign the almost unanimously-approved law by the Parliament. The President of Ukraine has also recently met with Silicon Valley investors and entrepreneurs in order to attract investment. Ukraine has also sent a delegation to El Salvador to explore the development of Bitcoin as legal tender there, as it seems that the plan is for Ukraine to adopt BTC as legal tender by 2023.

Panama Congressman Gabriel Silva has proposed a bill that would make Bitcoin legal tender in Panama. Silva announced on Twitter that this bill has the potential to create jobs and governmental transparency. Silva also shared a link with the entire proposal documented. This is another development in what is becoming a trend among countries who want to create more stability in their fiscal policies through Bitcoin. 

One of the main theoretical utilities of Bitcoin is the ability to send large amounts of money quickly, for little to no fees. Western Union for example, takes 12.5% from a 100$ transaction and takes three days. Furthermore, clients can only receive the money in cash, which poses a risk from thieves who wait in front of the Western Union locations to steal money. With remittances that reach $6Billion per year, if the Chivo Wallet (National Government’s BTC wallet) is adapted at large scale, Western Union and other money transferring companies could lose up to $400 Million. 

Entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk is set to auction 5 of his original drawings for the VeeFriends collection at the world’s premier auction house, Christie’s. 

VeeFriends is an NFT collection made of 268 characters. Each of them has a smart contract that serves a certain function. Now GaryVee has linked up with Christie's to auction 5 of the physical drawings for 5 of the VeeFriends NFTs. This is another announcement that GaryVee has executed with the hope of raising the value of what he has referred to as his “Disney.” He has expressed his desire to continue to build this Intellectual Property as a long term project. Auctioning these drawings at Christie’s will surely help achieve that goal.

The UK Post Office has licensed its face verification software to Swarm Markets, a crypto exchange. In return, citizens who have IDed their identity on the Post Office app can use that ID to buy vouchers, which can be redeemed into Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency. This is another move from institutions around the world cooperating with crypto-based companies to help make cryptocurrency more mainstream.