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Market news: Local authorities said that drone debris crashed at night in an area of an oil depot in Russias Krasnodar Krai, causing a fire that has been extinguished.April 11th - According to foreign media reports, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has decided to increase UK defense spending at a faster pace than currently planned in an effort to counter potential leadership challenges. The UKs defense spending has fallen behind allies such as Germany, and the government had previously set a target of increasing core defense spending to 3.5% of economic output by 2035. The decision to increase defense spending is essentially finalized, but specific details are still pending. The UK Treasury insists that any significant increase in defense spending must be achieved through tax increases or spending cuts.On April 11, the Japanese government approved an additional subsidy of 631.5 billion yen (approximately US$4 billion) to accelerate Rapiduss entry into the highly competitive field of artificial intelligence chip manufacturing. This funding aims to support Rapiduss business operations for IT company Fujitsu. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry stated on Saturday that the additional funding brings the total amount of government funding and investment in the startup to 2.6 trillion yen (approximately US$16.3 billion) in the current fiscal year (ending March 2027). The ministry said an external committee has inspected Rapiduss wafer fab in northern Hokkaido and approved its technological progress. The newly established chipmaker began developing wafers using 2-nanometer technology last year, aiming to mass-produce cutting-edge semiconductors by 2027 and help Japan reduce its reliance on industry leader TSMC.April 11th - A Bank of America research report indicates that the Eurozone is far more sensitive to oil prices than the United States. The study found that a 10% shock to oil prices would have an inflationary impact of approximately 40 basis points and a corresponding growth impact of over 10 basis points. Both of these effects are roughly twice that in the United States. We believe this result is due to the higher proportion of energy in Europes consumption basket and the regions status as a net importer of oil.On April 11th, Baidu AI Cloud, in collaboration with embodied intelligence companies such as ZeroPower, LingSheng Technology, Fourier, Weite Technology, Topway Intelligence, Shutu Technology, and Songying Technology, launched the Baidu AI Cloud Embedded Intelligence Data Supermarket (Beta Version). This pioneering hierarchical and scalable data tagging system accelerates the large-scale deployment of embodied intelligence. Currently, Baidu AI Cloud provides services to over 30 embodied intelligence companies, including Zhiyuan and Unitree.

Bitcoin Lightning Network-Based Strike Can Rival Visa – MS

Cory Russell

Apr 25, 2022 09:49

Morgan Stanley is optimistic about the bitcoin Lightning Network's potential as a consumer payment option.


They believe Strike, a Lightning Network-based payment technology, can compete with or even outperform Visa in the digital payments market.


Strike has partnered with Shopify and NCR, the world's leading supplier of point-of-sale payment solutions.


Morgan Stanley published a new analysis on the Lightning Network, bitcoin's Layer 2 fast payment system, and its potential to enable a "long-term move towards payments and settlements utilizing digital and cryptocurrencies rather than fiat currencies like the US dollar."


Morgan Stanley's positive analysis on the Lightning Network's potential for broader adoption comes after Strike, a US-based digital payments platform built on top of bitcoin's Lightning Network, announced earlier this month a new integration agreement with e-commerce giant Shopify.


Customers who paid in bitcoin will now be able to receive payments in US dollars from US Shopify businesses. Strike has announced collaborations with NCR, the world's leading supplier of point-of-sale (PoS) payment services.

Morgan Stanley Believes That Lightning Network Will Be Able to Compete With Visa

Morgan Stanley outlined why it believes Strike, a Lightning Network-based digital payment network, can compete with or perhaps exceed Visa in its recent study.


Morgan Stanley observes that "in essence, Strike is directly competing with Visa Direct, which provides real-time settlement," adding that "the primary distinction for merchants will be paid a significantly lower transaction cost."


"The customer advantage is that they may, if they choose, host their bitcoin on a private, secure network, enabling an element of secrecy connected with their transaction," the bank says.


Morgan Stanley emphasizes the importance of Strike's cooperation with NCR. "NCR software is used by one in every six PoS devices worldwide," the bank says, "so this news is important even if just a tiny percentage of retail businesses opt to add crypto capabilities."

Cons of Making Bitcoin Payments

The Morgan Stanley analysis points out some of the disadvantages of utilizing a bitcoin-based payment system, such as the cryptocurrency's underlying volatility on a day-to-day basis, which makes forecasting future buying power problematic.


Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley says that existing tax regulations, which require users to pay capital gains taxes on cryptocurrencies they sell, are a barrier to greater acceptance of bitcoin as a widely used means of exchange.


The bank, on the other hand, mentions the Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act, which has been introduced in the US Congress. If passed, the law would exclude personal bitcoin transactions from taxation as long as the profits are less than $200.


Morgan Stanley, on the other hand, cautions that this plan may meet criticism, particularly from anti-crypto members of Congress, since it serves to establish bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) as credible alternatives to the US currency.


The Morgan Stanley analysis "suggests we are at the beginning of an age when more and more people may opt to pay for items using Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies over time," according to Alex Gladstein, who summarized it on Twitter.

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