Fall is finally here, so put on your favorite flannel and cozy up to these updates from the Amp community. Read on to learn about the latest vote on whether to offer replacement Amp to token holders who mistakenly sent their token to the Amp token contract, Flexa’s European conference tour, and the latest payment industry news.

For new community members, check out previous issues on Substack and subscribe to stay up to date. For additional, more frequent updates, make sure to join the Amp community on Discord and Twitter.

In case you missed it…

First Amp governance vote passes with broad support

The first Snapshot vote to establish the Amp Community Grant Program was passed, with votes gathered representing more than 12% of the circulating supply of Amp. The grant submission and approval process outline will soon be posted for feedback on the Amp Community Forum.

Flexa proposes to replace assets erroneously sent to token contract addresses

As a one-time replacement event for early supporters, Flexa has introduced a proposal to replace irrecoverable tokens that were mistakenly sent to the Amp and Flexacoin token contract addresses. Funds for this proposal would come directly from Flexa, and the proposal is explicitly stated to be a one-time replacement. Voting for this proposal is now live, so let your voice be heard.

Keynotes at Legends4Legends and TNW Conference in Amsterdam

Last week, Flexa co-founder and CEO Tyler Spalding gave two keynote speeches in Amsterdam: at the Legends4Legends conference, Tyler presented Flexa and Amp to some of Europe’s largest financial institutions; and later that week, Tyler spoke at one of Europe’s largest tech conferences, TNW Conference 2021. His keynote address was entitled “Crypto networks as business model innovation.”

Amp on Newton and ZebPay

Amp is now available on Newton, a Canada-based, zero-fee brokerage, and ZebPay, an India-based exchange, gaining the new AMP–INR trading pair in the process. This new availability enables more liquidity for the Amp community across Canada, Asia, and Oceania.

Metrics update

Current TVL of Flexa Capacity — $1.41 billion

Earn rewards for staking your Amp on the Flexa network toward the apps below:

Stake Gemini

Stake SPEDN

Did you know?

Voting on Snapshot via gasless signature is an easy and free way to participate in Amp community governance. The building block that enables voting on Snapshot was introduced in 2017 with EIP-712.

DeFi and payments news

Banks push back against Apple Pay fees

The Wall Street Journal reports that banks like J.P. Morgan, Capital One, and Bank of America have “grown unhappy” with the fees Apple charges them each time their customers use Apple Pay. Apple’s fees are part of the typical interchange fee charged by credit card networks. The banks are seeking to exclude certain types of transactions such as subscription fees from Apple’s take.

Bank of America launches digital currency custody service

In a move signaling continued institutional interest in cryptocurrencies, Bank of America has announced it will offer custodial services for bitcoin, bitcoin cash, and litecoin. Bank of America joins other financial institutions—including State Street, Bank of New York Mellon, and Northern Trust—in offering such custody services.

Visa develops concept for central bank digital currency payments 

Last week, Visa released early concepts for a universal payment channel solution that could facilitate interoperability among blockchains. While the announcement was largely a conceptual framework, rather than a true solution, its focus is also primarily related to central bank digital currencies (“CBDCs”) instead of cryptocurrencies. 

Biden administration considers stablecoin regulations

In a positive development for long-term digital currency market stability, the Biden administration has signaled interest in bringing stablecoin issuers into the financial regulatory framework, possibly by treating them similarly to banks or via a special purpose charter. Ultimately, this could help assuage concerns about the financial stability of stablecoins, a sector that has ballooned to over $110 billion in value and widely underpins much of the digital currency economy.

Nigeria federal court gives green light to Naira CBDC

After the central bank of Nigeria received a cease and desist for trademark infringement regarding the name of its planned CBDC, eNaira, federal courts concluded that the CBDC rollout could continue as a matter of national interest. Nigeria joins countries around the world in pushing CBDCs forward as part of an effort to digitize their economic systems.

From the community

Reddit user /u/tjcim_ has been continually improving and recently released the latest version of his Amp Dashboard at ampdashboard.io.

Post of the week

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