⌐◪-◪ → Russia is pushing forward with its blockchain-powered digital ruble, primarily as a means to circumvent international sanctions related to the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Most Russian banks have already been banned from the systems that process international transactions, forcing them to find new ways to access the global economy.

This CBDC is ultimately part of a war between pro-dollar countries and anti-dollar countries.

⌐◪-◪ → Last month, Mt. Gox representatives said they'd start repaying creditors in cash shortly.

Earlier today, in a Reddit thread, several users — who appear to be creditors of the defunct exchange — said they received Mt. Gox payments through PayPal.

So there you have it. After nearly 10 years, people are finally getting some money back for what will go down as one of the biggest centralized crypto failures of all time — 800,000 Bitcoin stolen.

⌐◪-◪ → The battle for decentralization continues as Bitcoin miners face increasing pressure to filter out transactions with suspected criminal ties.

Experts believe miners will start censoring transactions connected to the OFAC list, which will simply become a cost of doing business in the West.

While I understand the need to fight terror, blacklisting addresses seems like a futile attempt, as spinning up a new address is as easy as creating a new email. How effective can this be?

Sometimes it feels like an excuse for the government to maintain some degree of control over things - simply for the sake of power.