As Bitcoin and other digital currencies became more relevant for the world’s financial system, numerous countries have started regulating the cryptocurrency market. One of the most important efforts was focused towards crypto taxation policies.

Now, recent reports indicate that the Japanese Tax Commission is unsatisfied with Japan’s current crypto taxation system, and is urging the country’s National Assembly to introduce new guidelines. This is great news for the Japanese crypto community, granted that until now, reporting crypto gains and investment profits was a confusing and exhausting experience. This aspect discouraged crypto users from disclosing their taxes, and put them at risk.

The potential of blockchain technology for supply chain purposes has often been praised by experts throughout the world. Now, recent reports indicate that the United Nations World Food Programme, commonly known as the WFP, will begin blockchain-based supply chain management testing in Africa.

With this in mind, the WFP has tested out a similar system for refugee aid purposes in the Middle East. With the project’s newest implementation, blockchain technology will be used to track food delivery in the east African region. More exactly, the blockchain network will track food shipments arriving in Djibouti, on their way to Ethiopia, where the UN’s main food operation camp is located.

MasterCard’s interest in blockchain technology has been peaking over the last couple of months. Now, recent reports indicate that the payment services giant is considering the use of blockchain to better keep track of consumer payments.

According to a recent patent filing, published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, MasterCard explains how distributed ledgers can instantly record point-to-point transactions. The afferent data can then be used by organizations to compile logs consisting of purchased items.

Despite the fluctuating crypto price drops present during the last few months, governments are still interested in regulating and profiting off the digital currency revolution.

With this in mind, recent reports indicate that the Ukrainian Parliament is interested in imposing a tax on digital currency-related profits of its citizens. To put things better into perspective, the country’s legislative body has proposed a bill that would impose a 5% tax on all crypto profits attained by both commercial entities and individuals.

According to recent reports, AT&T might be responsible for the loss of $24 million in cryptocurrency, after the cell phone of a digital currency investor was hacked. With this in mind, Michael Turpin is suing the telecom firm for $224 million, after the company reportedly failed to protect his smartphone data.

As part of his lawsuit, the investor claims that AT&T employees are complicit in a SIM swap scam, where hackers attempt to gain access to phone data via social engineering. In other words, for this scam to work, criminals are known to pose as the owner of a victims’ phone number, hence convincing the customer support teams of telecom providers to grant access to the phone in question. By doing this, attackers get access to a variety of accounts, including digital currency wallets.

According to recent reports, South Korea’s interest in blockchain technology is peaking, granted that the government has recently decided to allocate a total of $880 million towards the development of innovative technologies, such as blockchain, big data and artificial intelligence.

In a government press release, it was stated that the deputy Prime Minister, Kim Dong Yeon, held a ministerial meeting on the 13th of August, to discuss the country’s investment plans in innovative technologies for the following five years.

According to recent reports, the State Bank of Vietnam, which is also the country’s central bank, announced that it will ban the import of digital currency mining hardware for individuals and companies.

The decision represents the bank’s response to a request filed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT). To put things better into perspective, the MoIT has recently suggested a temporary ban that would affect the import of mining hardware. The reasoning behind this is based on the issues concerning the management of currency flows in the region. According to the ministry, the use of mining equipment and cryptocurrencies is making financial management more difficult for the government. So far, mining has not been forbidden, and it is unknown whether the government is considering such a move.

According to recent reports, the U.K Barclays bank, which is likely the biggest international corporate bank, has filed two crypto-related patents with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The decision showcases the existence of a trend among companies, which are actively trying to gain exclusivity over future crypto market technologies.

With this in mind, the first patent is related to ‘a system for transferring cryptocurrency from a payer to a recipient, comprising receiving an identifier of data describing the first entity’. On the other hand, the second patent represents a method and system that ‘records data describing a first entity, the data endorsed by a second entity comprising the second entity validating data describing the first entity, wherein an identifier is associated with the data, the identifier being generated from a public key of the first entity.’

The State of New York has actively pursued cryptocurrency regulation, especially since exchanges operating in the region need to register and be licensed by the city’s financial regulator. Despite this aspect, the New York State Assembly has recently proposed the idea of creating a digital currency task force, meant to examine the crypto and blockchain markets operating locally.

According to a summary of the meeting, if approval is received, the task force will consist of 9 persons, who will write out a report of their findings by December 2019.

During the last couple of months, numerous monetary regulatory agencies have turned their eyes towards the digital currency market. Now, reports indicate that the International Monetary Fund is advocating for central banks to introduce regulatory policies, while also encouraging innovation on the fiat market.

Based on this, the deputy director for the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the IMF has outlined a couple of responses meant to lower the rivalry present between banks and digital currencies. With this in mind, he mentioned that: “Central banks should continue to strive to make fiat currencies better and more stable units of account.” To do so, central banks should introduce measures meant to discourage money laundering and terrorism financing, while also protecting consumers and taxing digital currency transactions.