Big News From Google

Good day, everyone, it's the BitDegree Insider newsletter, and it's time we take a screenshot of the crypto world! But before we go, we have a question for you!

What are you most interested in?

Today's talking points:

• ⚡Big News From Google & Coinbase
• ⚡Europe-Sized News
• ⚡New Taxes
• ⚡Learn & Earn
• ⚡Selected Meme of The Day
• ⚡Bite-Sized News

Google Shakes Hands With Coinbase

Yesterday Google announced that they're about to rely on Coinbase to make it possible for certain customers to pay for cloud services with crypto. This will become reality as early as in 2023.

Eventually, more and more customers will be able to use crypto as their choice of payment. As of today, Coinbase Commerce is able to process payments in 10 cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC, DAI, LTC, BCH, DOGE, SHIB, and APE).

Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, described it: "We could not ask for a better partner to help execute our vision of building a trusted bridge into the Web3 ecosystem."

Apart from this, Google is stepping into crypto territory in even more ways. For example, if you searched for an Ethereum address on Google, the search engine would find and show the wallet's ETH balance for you. Here's an example: check out Vitalik's wallet.

The bottom line here is simple. Google partnered with Coinbase. If it works out, everyone will follow. This could eventually be seen as the first landslide which started the avalanche of global adoption. Fingers crossed!

Europe-Sized News

The European Union's executive arm, The European Commission, has its eyes on DeFi matters. Ethereum is what they're interested in.

So, The European Commission has submitted an important document. Here's how its short description goes:

"<...> The project will seek to benefit from the open nature of transaction data on the Ethereum blockchain, which is the biggest settlement platform of DeFi protocols..."

Translation:

The European Commission has a goal to develop a tracking tool that would allow the EU to get blockchain data directly from the blockchain itself. It would allow the authorities to evaluate, understand, and come up with adequate legislation towards the whole DeFi world.

This means that the highest authorities have their highest attention on DeFi. Things are advancing. More clarity is near. Its objective - crypto is entering the territory of things that are here to stay.

New Taxes

Portugal is the latest country to address crypto in a strict manner.

Country has revealed its next year's budget plan. According to it, the government is planning to impose taxes on crypto gains. But it will apply only for purchases that are held for less than a year.

This marks a major policy change. Up until now, Portugal did not tax cryptocurrency gains, except for those that came from business-related activities. If things go according to plan, starting in 2023, Portugal would begin applying a tax rate of 28% for freshly-made crypto gains.

Bad news for locals, digital nomads, moved to Portugal as a safe haven for crypto junkies. But as crypto gets more popular, it will receive more and more official attention. We can be sure that Portugal is not the last country to announce such policy shifts.

Learn & Earn

Here's something cool. Did you know that Metaverses have more purposes than simply entertainment, and digital exploration? One of them is learning, and decentralized education.

Learnoverse - the crypto learning metaverse - is the perfect example. Their mission is simple: to become the world's #1 crypto educator. And they're not taking the old, boring, watered-down path of typical internet education.

They're kicking out the crypto door for everyone to enter, understand, learn, and earn. NFTs, blockchain certificates, and even scholarships. Everything's on the table within the Learnoverse.

A virtual world created just so people could partake in the glorious adventure of learning, and improving themselves. If you want to learn how to swim - you go into the water. If you want to understand web3 - you go into the Learnoverse.

Selected Meme of The Day

Bite-Sized News

• Google Rolls Out Feature Displaying Ethereum Wallet Balances
• US SEC Launches Investigation on Yuga Labs Over Unregistered Offerings
• Ripple Brings On-Demand Liquidity to France and Sweden
• Binance and Sequoia Capital Are Contributing to Elon Musk's Twitter Buyout
• Microsoft Collaborates With Meta to Bring Its Office 365 Apps to Metaverse