Latam Insights: Vitalik Buterin Praises Argentina, Brazilian Banks Test Microsoft CBDC Privacy Solution

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Welcome to Latam Insights, a compendium of Latin America’s most relevant crypto and economic news during the last week. In this issue: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin praises Argetina’s moves, Brazilian banks introduce Microsoft privacy solutions in digital real tests, and Mi Primer Bitcoin graduates students in Cuba.

Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Praises Argentina’s New Direction

Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of Ethereum, has praised the new direction that Argentina is taking under the leadership of President Javier Milei. While Milei has been criticized for his libertarian reforms and the speed of his actions, Buterin believes that Milei’s virtues reside in the leading role he has given economics.

In a recent interview where Buterin confesses he now likes to spend Christmas in Argentina, he explained that the situation in the country is very different from the one in the U.S., where he feels political actors have forgotten about the economy and what matters for people.

About Milei, Buterin declared:

Milei is unique in both his vibes and politics and has become famous around the world for his personality. Although the first impression he gives is that he is neither educated nor intelligent and is like a crazy person, then you realize that he has quite profound ideas about economic and monetary policy.

In just three weeks since he was proclaimed president, Milei has taken two significant steps into policing Argentina into a more libertarian country, repealing laws to reduce the size and influence of the state. His first emergency executive order, which proposes the basis for the reconstruction of the Argentine economy, is currently being opposed in courts due to its alleged overreach.

More recently, he sent an Omnibus law to Congress that aims to get legislative powers via executive orders and allows for the regularization of previously undeclared digital assets, among other proposals.

Brazilian Banks Test Microsoft Privacy Solution With Digital Real

The Association of Brazilian Banks (ABBC) has announced that, in addition to completing more than 120 operations with the Brazilian central bank digital currency (CBDC), it is testing a Microsoft privacy tool into the digital real design.

While the central bank requires these testing consortiums to use one of three privacy solutions (Zether, Starlight, and Parchain), the consortium opted for using a fourth alternative, testing the solution’s interoperability with the digital real.

ABBC’s director of innovation and services, Euricion Murari Soares de Pinho, stated:

As Microsoft is part of our consortium and is developing confidential computing work, our node was born with confidentiality. We have already built our entire node within this infrastructure.

Mi Primer Bitcoin Graduates Bitcoin Students in Cuba

Mi Primer Bitcoin, an organization that promotes Bitcoin knowledge in El Salvador, recently reported about the second graduation of Bitcoin students in Cuba. 21 Cubans with ages between 14 and 18 years old have now acquired the basic Bitcoin knowledge to make transactions.

The new graduates add to the 19 students who also took Mi Primer Bitcoin’s course last October, taking the number of graduates to 40 students who acquired Bitcoin knowledge through these courses.

This is the result of the expansion actions that Mi Primer Bitcoin announced back in September when the organization revealed a joint program with the government of El Salvador to take Bitcoin courses to all schools in the country.

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