EMBRACING CHANGE: In a speech today, Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), encouraged the "exploration" of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in light of decreasing demand for cash and rising preference for digital money.
Lagarde said: “I believe we should consider the possibility to issue digital currency. There may be a role for the state to supply money to the digital economy.”
Various central banks around the world are "seriously" considering the issuance of digital currency, including Canada, China, Sweden and Uruguay, she said. "They are embracing change and new thinking – as indeed is the IMF."
Lagarde further noted that major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum and XRP, are also “vying for a spot in the cashless world, constantly reinventing themselves in the hope of offering more stable value, and quicker, cheaper settlement.”
Yet, at the same time, the IMF issued a report criticizing the view that public cryptocurrencies offer an alternative to CBDCs, saying: "Cryptocurrencies are different along many dimensions and struggle to fully satisfy the functions of money, in part because of erratic valuations." Full Story
EASY MINING: While crypto mining hasn't yet had an 'everyman device,' investors are betting that will change at the hands of a new company called Coinmine.
Announced today, the startup is revealing its first product, the CoinMine One – a hardware device aimed at crypto enthusiasts who'd like to earn rewards for mining blockchains – without the need to learn a new technical skill set.
The CoinMine One will retail for $799 and start shipping in mid-December. CEO Farbood Nivi told CoinDesk that the company believes its mining product has mass-market appeal.
Out of the box, the device will sport a miner that can generate any one of the following: ether (ETH) at 29 Mh/sec, monero (XMR) at 900 h/sec, or zcash (ZEC) at 320 h/sec. It uses roughly as much power (120 watts) as a PlayStation 3 during game play and runs at 40 decibels (quiet compared to the cacophony created by other mining products), the firm says.
The effort is notably backed by Coinbase Ventures and Arrington Capital, alongside angel investors Balaji Srinivasan (now CTO of Coinbase and a former mining entrepreneur), Morgan Creek partner Anthony Pompliano and others. Full Story
GOOGLE GIVEAWAY: Not even Google is safe from crypto Twitter giveaway scams. Google's productivity and collaboration tools platform G Suite briefly promoted a bitcoin giveaway on the social media site before being taken down.
Both Google and Twitter have reportedly confirmed that the @gsuite account had been compromised, and the two companies are investigating the situation. A Google spokesperson said the tweet was removed, according to Business Insider.
Google’s incident comes a day after retail giant Target was also hacked, and follows a recent escalation in such attempts at hacking overall. Last week, a number of verified Twitter accounts were hacked and changed to impersonate Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, strictly to promote bitcoin giveaway scams. Full Story | 
