The chairman of Kazakhstan’s National Payment Corporation (NPC), Binur Zhalenov, has made the first transaction with the country’s new central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital tenge. During his speech at the XI Congress of Finance in Almaty on Nov. 15, he paid with a debit card tied to the CBDC account, according to local outlet, Kapital.kz….

As we approach Bitcoin’s halving in April, a phenomenon that historically triggers significant market shifts, companies within the space are at a critical juncture. This event is surrounded by speculation and strategic planning, and for some, a sense of uncertainty. While it’s laden with opportunities, it’s vital for businesses to adopt a balanced approach, integrating a…

Plasma, a once-prominent Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution, should be revisited by teams currently working on zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines (EVMs), says Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. Invented in 2017, Plasma diverts data and computation — except deposits, withdrawals and Merkle roots — to an off-chain environment. It was superseded by optimistic and zero-knowledge (ZK)-rollups as…