Sat - 08 April

Good Morning & Happy Saturday! As always you can find your personal referral links at the bottom 🫡. All those who received your referral rewards, please tweet and tag web3samaj!

India is targeting 1 million CBDC users in the next three months, we don’t like investing in DeFi, Mac has a hidden Bitcoin whitepaper folder and Japan govt authors a web3 whitepaper. It sure is an eventful Saturday.

🇮🇳India Targeting One Million CBDC Users in Three Months: Two individuals familiar with the matter told CoinDesk that architects of India's retail central bank digital currency (CBDC-R) are striving to increase the user base of the digital rupee to one million users, with a priority on finding a solution for an offline version. Although the RBI publicly announced in March that it was targeting 500,000 users by July, it is secretly aiming to double that number. The RBI launched a Hackathon in 2023 to address some of the issues related to a retail CBDC, such as improving scalability, increasing transactions per second, and developing solutions for enabling offline transactions. To conduct offline transactions, the RBI is considering testing wearables, debit and credit cards, Bluetooth technology, and smartphones. Another significant concern the RBI is looking to address is the risk of double-spending.

📃An Avg Indian Crypto Investor Allocates 9.6% Of Portfolio To DeFi: According to a report by dYdX Basis and GravityX, the typical Indian cryptocurrency investor only invests 9.6% of their portfolio in DeFi tokens and protocols like UNI, AAVE, and CAKE. The majority of the report's 1,100+ respondents (about 60%) have allocated a relatively small portion of their portfolio (5%-15%) to DeFi, while the rest, consisting of more experienced investors and traders, have larger allocations towards DeFi tokens. In comparison, the Indian Web3 and crypto community prefers to allocate more funds towards blue-chip assets (27.3%), stablecoins (26.3%), and Layer-1 tokens (26.2%).

🪙 There Is A Bitcoin Whitepaper In Your Mac: In 2020, the Bitcoin whitepaper was discovered as a hidden file on Mac computers. Recently, rumors about Steve Jobs being Satoshi Nakamoto have resurfaced because the whitepaper is still present on the current Mac OS. Several people, including the Twitter account Documenting Bitcoin, have confirmed this finding and even provided a video demonstrating how to access the file. The late Apple co-founder has been associated with the creation of BTC, although this is less likely because he is known more as a visionary and business magnate than a coder and cryptographer. Jobs' contribution in making personal computers widely accessible has been cited as a possible reason for the link.

📝 Japan Approves Web3 White Paper: The Web3 project team of Japan's ruling party has released a white paper outlining recommendations to boost the country's crypto industry as part of PM Fumio Kishida's "Cool Japan" technology promotion initiative. The white paper emphasizes that Japan should take the lead at the upcoming G7 summit discussions on crypto. The paper also proposes changes to tax regulations, including tax exclusions for companies holding tokens issued by other firms, self-assessment for investors, and taxation of crypto only when assets are converted to fiat currency. The white paper suggests creating a DAO law based on Japan's godo kaisha and making changes to regulations under the Companies Act and the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. Finally, the paper addresses the slow review process for new tokens issued by foreign entities and calls for greater transparency in the procedures.

🪂 Ralph Lauren Airdrops NFT Invites: Ralph Lauren, the American luxury clothing brand, is now accepting cryptocurrency for the first time at its newly opened store in Miami's Design District. In addition to allowing crypto payments, the brand is also offering a crypto-focused experience by collaborating with the online leisure community Poolsuite to gift NFTs to its customers. Poolsuite, which has been selling NFT memberships since November 2021, has sent commemorative Ralph Lauren tokens to its NFT holders, which can be used to register for tickets to a private party in Miami in late April. More than 2,700 addresses have received the tokens. Poolsuite's Grand Leisure NFT holders will also be able to update their avatars with Ralph Lauren-inspired digital looks based on the brand's recent runway show in Los Angeles.

What Is Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade?: The Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade is a hard fork and the protocol’s first major upgrade since ‘The Merge’ in 2022. This network upgrade is scheduled for March 2023, and its main purpose is to allow stakers and validators to withdraw staked ETH from the Beacon Chain.