UK authorities confirmed that they are already studying the feasibility of launching a national cryptocurrency which they already name as 'Britcoin' on social networks.

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This Monday, Rishi Sunak , UK Finance Minister, confirmed in a statement that the British Central Bank is analyzing the possibility of creating a national cryptocurrency . This opens the door to the likely launch of a digital currency, which has been given the unofficial name of 'Britcoin' .

Our vision is a more open, greener and more technologically advanced financial services sector. The UK is already known to be at the forefront of innovation, but we have to go further , Sunak said according to a statement posted on the British Government's website.

The steps I outlined today - to drive fintech growth, push the boundaries of digital finance, and make our financial markets more efficient - will propel us forward. And if we can capture the extraordinary potential of technology, we will consolidate the UK's position as the world's leading financial center , the official added.

Sunak also revealed that a task force has already been formed to analyze the viability of an official digital currency.

"We have created a new working group between the Treasury and the Bank of England to coordinate exploratory work on a possible central bank digital currency ," said the minister during the UK FinTech Week conference, Reuters quotes.

Later, Sunak responded with the word 'Britcoin' to a post on Twitter from the Ministry of Finance, where they confirm the initiative.

In this regard, the Bank of England released a statement on Monday, saying that a digital version of the British pound would not replace physical cash or affect existing bank accounts.

"The Government and Bank of England have yet to make a decision on the introduction of a Central Bank-backed digital currency in the UK , and will work closely with stakeholders to study benefits, risks and practicalities of this decision." the institution declared.

Faced with the cryptocurrency boom in the last year, the United Kingdom is not the only one considering launching an institutional digital currency. Also countries such as China or Russia are exploring the possibilities of issuing a 'crypto' version of their national currencies.

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UK Discusses Creating 'Britcoin', Its Own Central Bank-Backed Cryptocurrency - Entrepreneur

We provide the latest Cryptocurrency Prices in GBP, and is aimed at those in the UK looking for price information and detailed Binance exchange buying guides covering Bitcoin and 6000+ Altcoins. Cryptocurrency Market capitalisation data, reporting, research, and analysis, is all based upon trusted CoinGecko data. We provide price and trading data for crypto including BTC/GBP, ETH/GBP, LTC/GBP, and over 6000 Cryptocurrency Prices in GBP. All Crypto Prices in GBP / British Pound Sterling. Market Cap data is also listed for leading cryptocurrencies including Ripple XRP, Bitcoin BTC, Ethereum ETH, Tether USDT, Polkadot DOT, Stellar XLM, Litecoin LTC, Bitcoin Cash BCH, Bitcoin BSV, and EOS. View the latest gainers and losers in the Trending page, all cryptocurrency market UK price data is automatically updated 24/7. Historical cryptocurrency prices and chart data is available for the most popular cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin; this shown in easy-to-read charts with time ranges of between 1 day and all time. We can refer you to Buy Bitcoin in the UK with Binance and you'll receive 10% as a kickback" (cashback) from the trading fees.

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What is Cryptocurrency? Our definition of Cryptocurrency is "a fully decentralised digital currency secured by cryptography".Bitcoin was the first digital currency and came into existence in 2009. In addition to Bitcoin, there arenow thousands of Altcoins. These coins are alternatives to Bitcoin; we list many of these on this site.Cryptocurrency prices including XRP, Bitcoin, and BTC observed on exchanges are generally based upon supply and demand. We will always strive to provide accurate market data and cryptocurrency prices, along with relevant links, news, and market discussion.

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SAN DIEGO, April 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Engiven, a leading cryptocurrency donation services company, is pleased to announce that the Orang Utan Republik Foundation (OURF) has selected the Engiven platform to enable Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrency donations to fund their programs.

"Engiven is continuing our mission to "crypto-enable" the nonprofit community by partnering with the Orang Utan Republik," said James Lawrence, CEO of Engiven. "Large-scale destruction of biodiverse forests has reduced the orangutan's numbers as well as other species that share the rainforest habitat. Engiven is providing OURF with an onramp to accept cryptocurrency donations and to generate awareness of this critical need."

The loss of biodiversity and rainforests continues to put the world in peril. Orangutan are a critically endangered species found only on the tropical islands of Borneo and Sumatra. These gentle arboreal primates are the "gardeners of the forest" and eco-engineers that help maintain the viability of forests through their daily foraging behavior.

The need to reduce human-wildlife conflict and increase protected habitat is essential, according to Dr. Gary Shapiro, president of OURF. "We only have another decade to turn things around to ensure the orangutan, wildlife and local people will have a sustainable future," said Shapiro, who continues, "Wild orangutans are shy by nature and hid from view in the forests, so crypto donations will help power our work to help save this cryptic but vitally important species. Our partnership with Engiven has made entering the cryptocurrency space an easy transition for us to provide donors with another way to contribute to our cause."

The Orang Utan Republik Foundation coordinates with partnering organizations to address the root causes affecting the current trajectory of environmental destruction including ignorance, poverty, fear, and indifference. Conservation education programs and reducing wildlife conflict with farmers by providing alternative solutions to their livelihood challenges are additional keys to success. OURF invests in the future of conservation on Borneo and Sumatra by providing multi-year scholarships to local students entering the fields of biology, forestry and veterinary science. Many will become orangutan advocates and influential leaders in conservation.

Engiven's donation management platform empowers nonprofit organizations to securely accept and liquidate cryptocurrency donations while eliminating most of the complexity. Engiven provides an enterprise level application and service that every nonprofit can operate and afford.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and 24 other cryptocurrencies can be donated to the Orang Utan Republik Foundation at: https://www.orangutanrepublik.org/crypto

About Engiven Engiven provides cryptocurrency donation management services to nonprofits. For more information about Engiven, visit https://engiven.com or contact James Lawrence, Cofounder and CEO of Engiven at [emailprotected].

About the Orang Utan Republik Foundation The Orang Utan Republik Foundation is based in the Santa Monica, CA with a mission of saving wild orangutans through education and other innovative programs that enroll and empower local Indonesians to value and take action in support of the mission. For more information, visit https://www.orangutanrepublik.org or contact Dr. Gary Shapiro, President OURF at [emailprotected] or 310-780-0883.

SOURCE Engiven, Inc.

https://engiven.com

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Engiven's Cryptocurrency Donation Management Platform Selected by the Orang Utan Republik Foundation - PRNewswire

New Kind of Networks native cryptocurrency token NKN has seen its price surge by over 1300% in the past month alone.

What Happened: NKN rose to a high of $0.7749 on April 6, gaining 160% overnight as the blockchain reported over 62,900 full consensus nodes, as first reported by Cointelegraph.

Measured by consensus nodes, NKN is essentially the largest blockchain network operational in the world today.

By comparison, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC)and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), which are the largest cryptocurrency blockchains by market cap, each has about 10,000 full consensus nodes at the moment.

In a recent blog titled Why billions of nodes matter,Zheng "Bruce" Li explained, NKN is fundamentally adata communication network. So the more nodes, the higher the network capacity.

Imagine it isVodafonein Europe,AT&Tin the US, orChina Mobilein China, the more cell towers they have, the better the user experience on their smartphones. It applies to NKN as well, since each node is doing the data relay and bandwidth sharing.

Why It Matters: NKN is an open-source protocol for public blockchain-based peer-to-peer networks to share network bandwidth and internet connectivity. The decentralized proof-of-work (PoW) network was launched in 2018 but has gained the most traction in the past few weeks.

According to data from Binance Research, the number of daily transactions on the NKN blockchain spiked to an all-time high of 729, compared to earlier months, where it recorded an average of 20 to 30 transactions a day. The number of large transactions, that is the on-chain transactions, exceeding $100,000, also witnessed a sudden uptick over the past month.

The projects increased momentum took shape shortly after crypto exchange Binance announced that NKN "hodlers" could earn up to 20% APY on their holdings through their Binance savings account.

Join us on SPACs Attack w/ Matt Higgins & Gary Vee

2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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New Kind Of Network (NKN) Cryptocurrency Surges 1300% In A Month, On Its Path To Become 'World's Biggest Blockchain' - Benzinga

The Daily Beast

David L. Ryan/GettyA new book on the Sackler familythe secretive billionaires who kept America in steady supply of OxyContincontains private emails that show the heirs complaining about how hard their lives were as they tried to downplay and shift blame for the deadly opioid crisis that left nearly half a million Americans dead.The messages, along with other revelations in Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe, shed light on how the Sacklers saw themselves not as beneficiaries of a company that invented, aggressively marketed, and profited from a dangerous drug, but as victims of a smear campaign. They also lay bare the internal tensions behind the familys public profile.In a 2017 email, Mortimer Sackler, son and namesake of one of the three brothers who co-founded Purdue Pharma, requested a $10 million loanand a possible additional $10 million...MAXfrom the family trust to fund his lavish lifestyle, with instructions to keep the cash infusion secret from his relatives.Start off with saying I am not happy, he wrote to a psychiatrist and leadership confidant named Kerry Sulkowicz. I am falling significantly behind financially.The heir was prepared to sell off artworks, jewelry, stock positions, but it would not be enough to get him into the black. I have been working for years on Purdue at what I consider to be a considerably discounted value relative to what MY TIME IS WORTH, Mortimer wrote. I am LOSING money by working in the pharma business.As for the secrecy, he conceded, the money could be reported in the trust accounts as loan/cash flow assistance to family members but not be specific... I dont want to hear my siblings opinion on this and I dont need more stress for this. I need to have this resolved... This needs to happen, the only question is how much DRAMA will be needed for this to happen.Historically, he added, his father, Mortimer Sr., who died in 2010, had been more than willing to help me.Feelings of aggrieved entitlement were not exclusive to Mortimer. When David Sackler, grandson of co-founder Raymond, got married, the book reveals, he wanted to buy a bigger apartment, but was snubbed by his father and boss, Richardthe man who oversaw and pushed the development of OxyContin more than anyone.On June 12, 2015, David wrote an email to his parents to voice some thoughts. He griped that as Richards assistant, he had worked hard to manage the family fortune and make the family richer. He was Richards right hand for everythinga grueling job because beyond pushing myself to excel, I work for a boss (Dad) with little understanding of what I do.All told, he wrote, it was quite literally the hardest job in the world. The Sackler familys Purdue Pharma invented and aggressively pushed OxyContin, the pain pill that sparked the opioid crisis. Erik McGregor/Getty The Sacklers have always publicly denied any wrongdoing related to the opioid crisis, but other emails show the private lengths they went to in order to downplay their own role in the disaster. In one correspondence, Mortimer insisted prescription opioids had little to do with addiction, casting doubt on whether a crisis even existed.In a Feb. 17, 2019, email, Mortimer ranted to family that prescription opioids are NOT the CAUSE of drug abuse, addiction, or the so called opioid crisis,setting off the phrase in scare quotes throughout the message to underscore his skepticism. I also dont think we should use the term opioid crisis or even opioid addiction crisis in our messaging, he added, favoring the terms drug abuse and addiction.The same day, Mortimers cousin, Jonathan, who died from cancer in July, suggested the familys predicament resembled that of the millions imprisoned in Americas bloated carceral system.In a message to two high-profile lawyers and a publicist, Jonathan fingered the tort bar, which he believed had framed pharmaceuticals as the bad guyjust the latest in a series of injustices the judicial system had wrought upon innocents. The billionaire scion compared his familys plightthe legal consequences of peddling faulty science to convince physicians to prescribe their medication in monumental quantities for long-term useto mass incarceration.The problem, Jonathan wrote, wasnt the family or its myriad businesses, or anything either had done, but how the narrative had been framed. The media is eager to distort and portray anything we say or do as grotesque and evil, he griped. To that end, it makes sense that almost none of the Sacklers agreed to comment for and instead militantly fought the publication of Keefes book, which tells the familys story from the birth of patriarch Arthur Sackler in 1913; to the founding of the original company, Purdue Frederick, with his two brothers in 1952; up until the Congressional hearing on its subsidiary Purdue Pharmas role in the opioid crisis at the end of 2020.In Empire of Pain, Keefe paints the picture of a family rife with contradictionsa dynasty that carefully distanced themselves from their company (named, not for the founders, but for its initial office building), while internally micro-managing its operations and siphoning billions into their personal coffers; one that refrained from all publicity, but spent decades slapping the family name on everything from entire museums to minor architectural features, like the Tate Moderns Sackler Escalator.Perhaps the most salient irony concerned the Sacklers stance on mental illness. At the start of his career, it was Arthur Sackler who pioneered the idea that diseases of the mind were not immutable problems brought on by genes or Freudian trauma, but flukes of brain chemistry that could be altered with medication. And yet for decades, his heirs have blamed the rampant abuse of their product, not on the medication itself, but on the intrinsic character of their customerswhom they derided as criminals with addictive personalities.That attitude is reflected in the emails Keefe obtained. In a Dec. 18, 2018, message, the younger Mortimer questioned whether the data on opioid-related overdoses had been fraudulently inflated, asking Purdues general counsel and other attorneys if any victims had taken out life insurance policies. Some insurers, he noted, paid out for accidental drug overdoses, but not suicides. I believe it is fair to assume, he wrote, that some proportion of the overdoses are actually suicides.The Sacklers utter lack of empathy for sufferers of addiction and mental illness carries particular weight, because both afflictions devastated those close to them. In 1975, Robert Bobby Sackler, the first son of founding brother Mortimer Sackler Sr., died at the age of 24. Bobby had struggled with mental illness; Keefe confirmed with the familys former housekeeper of three decades that he had spent time in a psychiatric facility not long before his death. Robert was very distraught. He was off the charts, a friend of his mother told Keefe. Recalling an instance when Bobby had been found wandering Central Park entirely naked, the friend remarked: Probably, it was drugs.Bobby had used PCP, the hallucinatory tranquilizer known as angel dust, the former housekeeper confirmed. Decades later, Bobbys sister would hint at a heroin addiction in a deposition, without mentioning her brother by name. The circumstances of his death remain unclear. On a Saturday morning, after an audible argument in his mothers New York apartment, the doorman heard the crash of breaking glass and a loud thud. Bobby had fallenor jumpednine stories from the apartment window. There is almost no other information about Bobbys life or death. The Sacklers rarely speak about him.Bobby never used OxyContin; he died before it was invented. But others in the Sackler orbit did. For decades, the family employed an attorney named Howard Udell, a figure so intensely loyal he invites comparisons to Tom Hagen in The Godfather (when Udell died, they would hang a giant portrait of him in the office). For two of those decades, Udell worked with a secretary referred to in the book by a pseudonym: Martha West.In 1999, West recalled in testimony years later, Udell instructed her to research ways people were abusing OxyContin (notably, the Sacklers long maintained they only became aware of abuse risks in 2000). She would log into various online forums to scour drug discussions using the pseudonym Ann Hedonia, a pun on the word anhedonia, meaning an inability to feel pleasure. As Keefe recounts, West later wrote a memo about users who reported crushing OxyContin tablets, sucking the time-release coating off, snorting the drug, cooking it, [and] shooting it with a hypodermic needle.The underlying tragedy of Wests memo (which mysteriously disappeared, but was found in a Department of Justice investigation years after) is that she would later resort to similar methods. After a bout of back pain, West explained, she began taking Oxy. Its effects were supposed to last 12 hours, but West found they wore off much earlier, so she started taking pills for immediate release by crushing the drug and snorting it. She became addicted. Though she had been sober for eight years, she began drinking again and using other substances to deal with Oxy withdrawal. Purdue fired her for poor work performance and West later filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against the company. When she was supposed to testify in a 2006 lawsuit filed by Virginia prosecutors against Purdue for felony misbranding, West never showed. Her lawyer found her the next morning, Keefe wrote, in the emergency room of a local hospital, where she had shown up to beg the staff for painkillers. Among the millions who became addicted to OxyContin was a trusted Purdue secretary, according to Empire of Pain. Getty Hundreds of thousands like West suffered from the Sacklers drug empire, but as Keefe notes, most will not receive compensation or reparations of any kind. In 2019, in response to the 2,500 lawsuits brought by a range of litigants from school districts to Native American tribes, Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcya move which typically freezes all legal proceedings against the complainant. Perhaps oddly for a company headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, Purdue filed in White Plains, New York, a district with a single bankruptcy judge who had a curious record. Years prior, the judge had ruled in a similar case to suspend all litigation against not only the bankrupted petitioner, but also some associates who were not even filing for bankruptcypeople like the Sacklers, who are still worth billions.In Purdues case, the judge did the same. His ruling rendered prosecutors powerless to pursue both the company and the family. Instead, the Department of Justice under Trump arranged a sweetheart settlement of $8 billion last fall, in which the company would plead guilty to three criminal charges and transition into a public trust. Almost none of the money will come from the Sacklers themselves, who also wont have to admit any wrongdoing.But Empire of Pain suggests an alternative legal interpretation. Back in the 1960s, before most of the living heirs were born, the original Sackler brothers entered into an agreement about what would happen to their business interests when they died. At the time, Purdue was nothing like what it became; the original iteration hawked more embarrassing treatments, like the laxative Senokot and the earwax remover Cerumenex. But Arthur Sackler already had a hand in many projects. He worked at the top advertising firm, William Douglas McAdams, where he pioneered pharmaceutical advertising by appealing directly to doctors themselves and helped make the tranquilizer Valium the most prescribed drug in America. He also had a secret stake in McAdams rival firm, L. W. Frohlich, whose president, Bill Frohlich, was a close friend.The three Sacklers and Frohlich made for a secretive coalition, referring to themselves as the musketeers, and together arranged a pact. Arthur tended to prefer verbal agreements, but this one had been drafted and formalized by an attorney, Richard Leather, who spoke to Keefe. In keeping with the slogan of Alexandre Dumas novel from which theyd taken their nicknameOne for all and all for onethe men agreed to pool their business holdings. When one died, the remaining three would inherit control of his businesses, instead of his heirs. When a second died, his holdings would go to the other two. The last survivor would get everything, until his deathwhen all would pass into a charitable trust. At various points, the original Sacklers harbored some sympathies for socialism. Even if their businesses did not at all hew to those ideals, the hope was that their inheritance would.The four men honored this pact at least once: when Frohlich died young, his stake into the company hed founded passed to the Sacklers. But Raymond and Mortimer Sackler, who had grown resentful of brother Arthurs power, cut him out of the estate. If a copy of the agreement still exists, it had disappeared by 1987, when Arthur died, leaving his collection of ex-wives and children to battle their cousins for cash.The Sackler family did not respond to Keefes queries about the four-way agreement. But Leather argues that it remains binding, meaning that the Sackler children and grandchildren should never have inherited Purdue, or pocketed its billions. The last of the four musketeers, Raymond, died in 2017. Nobody had a right in any of these assets. Those assets were to go to a charitable trust, Leather said. The Sacklers inheritance was, as he put it, a fraud.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Bitcoin and taxes: EY cryptocurrency expert details what to know - Yahoo Money