Webtel.mobi Describes Impassable Barriers to Proposed CBDC Creation – Already Transcended by Its TUV Digital Currency

WM’s TUV Digital Currency had to cater for, and transcend, thousands of requirements to be a fully operational Global Digital Currency. Proposed CBDCs will find it difficult to do so.

WEBTEL.MOBI TUVS -USD, EUR, GBP and CHF
WEBTEL.MOBI DESCRIBES IMPASSABLE BARRIERS TO PROPOSED CBDC CREATION – ALREADY TRANSCENDED BY ITS TUV DIGITAL CURRENCYWM’s TUV Digital Currency had to cater for, and transcend, thousands of requirements to be a fully operational Global Digital Currency. Proposed CBDCs will find it difficult to do so.

NEW YORK and ST PETER PORT, Guernsey, Oct. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In response to multiple enquiries received by Webtel.mobi (“WM”) regarding its TUV Digital Currency and its relationship to proposed Central Bank Digital Currencies (“CBDCs”), the following clarification is provided on WM’s views of CBDCs and its TUV Digital Currency.

Overview in respect of proposed CBDCs
Central Bank Digital Money already exists – and has existed for decades. The vast majority of money created by Central Banks is created in Digital format and provided to Commercial Banks and other recipients in that format (i.e., not in physical form).

Similarly, a form of Central Bank Digital Money for exchange between countries (i.e., between Central Banks utilizing different currencies) already exists in “Special Drawing Rights” or SDR instrument – curated by the International Monetary Fund. This SDR instrument is a basket of currencies – in Digital format – that can be provided to Central Banks of countries under specific circumstances. (information on SDRs appears in the ‘Resources’ section of this article).

A primary question re: CBDC creation is therefore: what are its adherents trying to create and why – because Central Bank Digital Money already exists?

Among entities currently trying to create a CBDC, there are varying definitions of what it would comprise, and there are two types of CBDC that would be created.

The first variation is a “Wholesale CBDC” – for use between Central Banks. The purpose for such an instrument has yet to be clearly and coherently articulated, because as Central Bank Digital Money already exists, has existed for decades, and performs its functions adequately, it is unclear what a replication thereof in another form would achieve. This variation of proposed CBDC will therefore not be discussed in this article.

Retail CBDCs
The second variation is a “Retail CBDC”, which would be Central Bank issued Digital Money issued to, accessible to, and usable by the public. Notwithstanding that the requirement for, or constructive purpose of, such a Retail CBDC has yet to be clearly or coherently defined, the desire to create one does not account for the extreme dangers they will create for national or international economic stability – some of which are as follow:

Disintermediation of Commercial Banks
Central Banks issue of money to the public would – as a matter of certainty – lead to partial or significant disintermediation of Commercial Banks. This means the role of Commercial Banks in creating money (credit) and acting as infrastructural pillars for the storage and distribution of money nationally and internationally would be affected – with nothing to replace it. Such an event would introduce instability into a system that – whatever its flaws may be – is the only currently globally functioning system, specifically constructed over centuries, to attend to the national and international creation of money (credit) and for national and international storage and distribution of money. To disrupt this infrastructural pillar without the means to immediately replace it, would be self-inflicted pain of the greatest order to national economies and the global economic system. As there is no infrastructure with which to replace it (other than nationalization of the Commercial Banking system), there appears to be no well-though-through purpose in doing this, or strategy to cope with the consequences of doing this. Moreover, if a hybrid of Central Banks issuing money simultaneously with Commercial banks doing so, how could Commercial banks ever compete with the Central bank that creates money and sets interest rates and other rates? They could not – and who would hear their cases against unfair competition – as the Central Bank or entities reporting to it, or reliant on it, are usually arbiters in such cases? Such a situation possesses – it seems – a great deal of potential for instability and chaos without any articulation – to date – on the advantages such a situation would bring about, and why and how this would occur.

Conflation of Personal Debt with National Debt
If central banks were to transact directly with the public (its clients), requirements for money (credit) creation would arise. This, in turn, means the Central bank would become the holders of the debt of its clients. However, how would that debt be classified in terms of National Debt? Would the population of a country then become de-facto responsible for the private debt of other citizens? How would the value of the national currency be affected if the Central Bank of a country was saddled directly with the private debt of citizens – instead of it being rather the Lender of Last Resort to Commercial Banks that customarily deal with matters of private debt? No satisfactory or coherent articulation of this quandary re: proposed Retail CBDCs has yet been articulated by its proponents.

Strategic Vulnerability of Currencies and Economies
Generally speaking, persons functioning at senior levels of knowledge and competence in the fields of Economics and Finance have a lack of expert knowledge in high-level Tech and IT matters. Similarly, people who are competent in respect of high-level Tech and IT matters have a corresponding lack of expert knowledge in Geopolitics, Economics and Finance. This leads to construct proposals being put forward that will – if followed – leave a country’s currency and economy open to Strategic Vulnerability in respect of proposed Retail CBDCs. One of these is the proposed use of “Tokens” to ensure security. However, if the Retail CBDC is to be convertible into other currencies, unless a Central Bank is to maintain extraordinary Foreign Exchange Reserves itself (and deplete them on retail or public transactions), it will be necessary for the Retail CBDC to be convertible into other currency Retail CBDCs via an intermediary organization or by other Central Banks. This will entail the absolute requirement to share details of the currency’s tokenized structure with the intermediary organization or other central banks to prevent Digital Counterfeiting. However, the very requirement to share this information to prevent Digital Counterfeiting increases the means one has to provide information that can result in Digital Counterfeiting by any bad actor. Digitally Counterfeited currency is absolutely indistinguishable from non-counterfeited Digital Currency, other than via a process that will make the retail free-flow of the currency impossible (meaning that it cannot act as a retail currency). Consequently, current efforts that focus on a “Tokenized” Retail CBDC are doomed to failure before they are even created.

Who currently has a CBDCs as they are currently defined
Currently, no country or entity has a CBDC as they are currently proposed. Although China and the Bahamas are touted as having CBDCs, this is not correct. What those two countries have are not Central Bank Digital Currencies (“CBDCs”). What they have are Central Bank Digital Payment Systems (“CBDPS”). This is why they could only test them in transactions between the public and merchant – using payment terminals. A CBDPS is not a CBDC as currently proposed or envisaged. It can only be used for payments. All that it is, is a central bank version of the exiting MasterCard, Visa, and similar Digital Payment Systems. The “Sand Dollar” of the Bahamas actually runs off MasterCard’s infrastructure – so is really only a whitelabeled version of MasterCard Digital Payments. No country has – or is likely to ever have – a CBDC as currently proposed, due to the overriding factor that no CBDC as currently envisaged can ever function without an Global Exchange Mechanism for them. A Global Exchange Mechanism does not exist and will in all likelihood – never exist.

The requirement for a Global Exchange Mechanism for CBDCs
For Retail CBDCs, as currently proposed, to function, it would be necessary for the possibility of free exchange and/or convertibility between varying currency CBDCs. To do that, one would need to have a Global Exchange Mechanism to facilitate and carry out the conversion. Notwithstanding this would require sharing of proprietary Tokenization data (which can never in fact be exchanged) with the entities running the Global Exchange Mechanism, it would also require international consensus between countries (especially Major Powers) as to where the Global Exchange Mechanism would be located. Who would manage it? according to what rules? what would the rates and prices be? etc. There is a long list of considerations. However, how would it be possible for the majority of countries – or at least the major Powers – to reach consensus? Between them – as clearly demonstrated – geopolitical Rivalries prevent any such cooperation. Whether it is the constant vetoing of one side by another in the UN Security Council, Trade Wars, threats, and agitation in respect of various parts of the world, proxy wars and the like – it is abundantly clear that geopolitical Rivalries will never disappear. Moreover, it then follows that in respect of a proposed Global Exchange Mechanism, one side will never give in to the other on decisions such as an entity’s location, management, rules, fees, costs, and other requirements. Consequently, as a Global Exchange mechanism is required to exist before CBDCs can be structured to act and function within its defined structures and processes – and as such a Global Exchange Mechanism does not exist and probably will never exist – the creation of CBDCs is rendered absolutely moot. This is because development of one will be like having a cart without a horse. Of no use to anyone at all.

Webtel.mobi’s TUV Digital Currency
When WM was creating its TUV Digital Currencies and the Global Exchange Mechanism and processes for it, the considerations listed in the preceding parts of this article were only a few of the many (thousands of) considerations required to develop a fully-functional and global digital currency, valid in and for all countries and currencies. It is necessary to attend to these many (thousands of) requirements, and the most important elements before one begins (considerations absent from the proposed CBDCs debates).
What must be addressed before the practical creation process are those relating to Geopolitics, Geostrategy, Balances of Power and the requirements for the maintenance of Global Stability. These were all addressed. WM’s TUV Digital Currency has extreme security features built into it – that are unique to each TUV. They include security features in the TUVs themselves, in their creation, transfer and redemption processes, in constant monitoring of the TUVs by the Artificial Intelligence System for multiple events. They are numerous to describe. Some of them can be seen in the “TUV Characteristics” in the Resources section of this article.

WM’s TUV provides full Global acquisition, storage, transfer, payment, Convertibility between currencies, convertibility back to a Fiat currency, return to bank accounts and various other essential requirements for a functional Global Digital Currency. None of these are theoretical, aspired-to or hoped-for characteristics. WM’s TUV Digital Currency was – after the years taken to initially create it and its Global Exchange Mechanism – fully tested and confirmed in years nine of global operations with WM’s Platform 1, prior to the creation of Platform 2 that incorporates lessons learned during the operational testing.

WM’S TUV is the world’s first and only fully functioning Digital Multicurrency in a format that produces all of the unique characteristics that it hold. These characteristics not only already also (safely) cater for the currently proposed requirements of both Wholesale CBDCs and Retail CBDCs, they supersede these requirements exponentially.

Resources:

Media Contact:
Nick Lambert: wm@thoburns.com

Overview of SDRs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_drawing_rights

Characteristics of WM’s TUV Digital Currency:
https://webtel.mobi/info/tuv-characteristics/

Information on WM’s “Secured TUV” Digital Currency:
https://webtel.mobi/info/my-secured-tuvs/

Information on WM’s “Smart TUV” Digital Currency:
https://webtel.mobi/info/my-smart-tuvs/

Video on the Capacities of the WM System:
https://youtu.be/XYBrCikUhn8

Research Reports on the Capacities of the WM System:
https://tinyurl.com/TUVresearch

WM’s urls:
https://webtel.mobi/pc (Tablets / Laptops / Desktops)
https://webtel.mobi (Smart Phones)
https://webtel.mobi/wap (Pre-Smart Mobile Phones)

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/26651716-17ab-4684-b9f9-ca260e1bf88b

The photo is also available at Newscom, www.newscom.com, and via AP PhotoExpress.

Sannam S4 launches “Seamless” – a new brand focused on the global expansion of commercial and nonprofit enterprises

LONDON, Oct. 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sannam S4 announced plans to take its global expansion services to the next level through the diversification and rebranding of its commercial and nonprofit operations under the Seamless name. As a reflection of the end-to-end solution that Sannam S4 offers – from market research and entity setup, to payroll, accounting and compliance, Seamless perfectly encompasses the services offered and optimisations delivered by an in-house team of experts and specialists from all over the world.

Seamless offers a trusted and proven set of services to the nonprofit and commercial sectors to expand in India, Asia and beyond. With over a decade of experience in India and other Asian countries, Sannam S4’s Seamless brand is ideally placed to make international expansion a success for organisations of all shapes and sizes.

With its year-on-year revenue growth and deep experience in global expansion of businesses from across a wide range of sectors, it was a natural choice for the Seamless brand to evolve into a separate, specialised organisation alongside Sannam S4. Under Seamless, organisations continue to benefit from a well-established brand’s expertise and extensive knowledge base. Industry experts provide a dedicated and specialised service inclusive of everything from strategy development to the legal implications of expansion to ongoing finance and accounting support and compliance-related concerns. As a reliable and trusted partner, Seamless provides the exact foundations and support operations needed to expand practically, safely, and with all the necessary structures in place for success.

“Seamless is the next exciting chapter evolving from the extensive dedication and focus our team has put into successfully helping businesses expand internationally. We continue to see a need in the market for our specialised, dedicated solution which provides companies, nonprofits and education institutions with the local expertise and support they need to establish and grow their international activities. That’s exactly what Seamless delivers.” –Adrian Mutton, CEO & Founder, Sannam S4

While Sannam S4 continues to be an industry specialist, Seamless represents an entirely new era for the business – and for the organisations that work with them. To find out more about Seamless or discover how Seamless can support you in expanding across the globe, contact Seamless at connect@seamlessglobal.co directly.

For more information on Seamless, please visit www.sannams4.com or contact:

Stacey Lane- Head of Communications
Stacey.Lane@sannams4.com

Workers Feel More Trusted and Motivated Thanks to Hybrid Working

Research shows office workers’ professional lives have improved since gaining greater autonomy over their working week

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SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — New research* from Kadence (formerly Chargifi) has revealed that after a year of flexible working, almost two-thirds of US and UK office workers (62%) now feel more trusted to do their job effectively. Of those workers, half also feel more motivated to do a better quality job (51%) and go the extra mile (48%) thanks to their new working arrangements.

Data from future of work specialist Kadence suggests employees are working more productively and efficiently thanks to the greater flexibility of time and place they’ve experienced outside of the traditional office. More than six in 10 workers said they feel an increased sense of trust because they’re not micromanaged as much as before the pandemic (64%) and are more free to do their work in a time that suits them best (63%).

As workers embrace hybrid and flexible approaches to work, businesses need to support their staff to foster an appropriate work-life balance. Of the 2,000 workers surveyed, close to three-quarters (74%) reported an increase in their use of online communication tools, not only during their contracted working hours but outside of them too (71%).

31% have found that the prolonged use of these tools leaves them with less desire to socialise with friends and family after work, and makes it harder to communicate in real life.

True hybrid working, which strikes the right balance between remote and face-to-face time, could help to retain the productivity benefits of being at home, while tackling the habits that lead to burnout, like the overuse of technology. In fact, over half of workers said they would prefer face-to-face meetings at least once a week (51%), and would rather have them in the office (52%). Having the tools to find and book meeting spaces easily was also a priority (40%).

Dan Bladen, CEO and founder of Kadence comments: “It’s clear that a culture of trust is needed for businesses and individuals to thrive as we shift to hybrid ways of working. Employers must move beyond physical location and shape the future of work with employee experience in mind, ensuring it’s easy to coordinate remote and in-person time and that staff have resources tailored to their needs. 

“As offices open up, business owners should pay attention to the evolving needs and behaviours of their employees to understand how individuals prefer to work and where they flourish, so they can create a supportive hybrid environment. This also means encouraging a balance, where employees work productively but also know when to stop, to prevent burnout. 

“The pandemic proved that it’s possible for workers to be productive anywhere. Now it’s up to businesses to design work around their people, maintaining the flexibility they’ve become accustomed to, and enabling them to get the best work done, wherever they choose.”

Press contact

Kadence@fugupr.com

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New Ebola Case Confirmed in Eastern DR Congo

A case of Ebola has been confirmed in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the health minister said Friday, five months after the end of the most recent outbreak there.

It was not immediately known if the case was related to the 2018-20 outbreak that killed more than 2,200 people in eastern Congo, the second deadliest on record, or the flare-up that killed six this year.

A 3-year-old boy tested positive near the eastern city of Beni, one of the epicenters of the 2018-20 outbreak, and died from the disease Wednesday, Health Minister Jean Jacques Mbungani said in a statement.

About 100 people who may have been exposed to the virus have been identified and will be monitored to see if they develop symptoms, he added.

An internal report from Congo’s biomedical laboratory said that three of the toddler’s neighbors in Beni’s densely populated Butsili neighborhood also presented symptoms consistent with Ebola last month and died, but none were tested.

Congo has recorded 12 outbreaks since the disease, which causes severe vomiting and diarrhea, and is spread through contact with bodily fluids, was discovered in the equatorial forest near the Ebola River in 1976.

“Thanks to the experience acquired in managing the Ebola virus disease during previous epidemics, we are confident that the response teams … will manage to control this outbreak as soon as possible,” Mbungani said.

It is not unusual for sporadic cases to occur following a major outbreak, health experts say. Particles of the virus can remain present in semen for months after recovery from an infection.

The disease typically kills about half of those it infects, although treatments developed since the record 2014-16 outbreak in West Africa have significantly reduced death rates when cases are detected early.

Two highly effective vaccines manufactured by Merck and Johnson & Johnson have also been used to contain outbreaks since then.

The 2018-20 outbreak, however, became as deadly as it did because the response was hampered by mistrust of medical workers by the local population as well as violence by some of the armed militia groups active in eastern Congo.

Source: Voice of America

Chinese Cyber Operations Scoop Up Data for Political, Economic Aims

Mustang Panda is a Chinese hacking group that is suspected of attempting to infiltrate the Indonesian government last month.

The reported breach, which the Indonesians denied, fits the pattern of China’s recent cyberespionage campaigns. These attacks have been increasing over the past year, experts say, in search of social, economic and political intelligence from Asian countries and other nations across the globe.

“There’s been an upswing,” said Ben Read, director of cyberespionage analysis at Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm, in an interview with VOA. Cyber operations stemming from China are “pretty extensive campaigns that haven’t seemed to be restrained at all,” he said.

‘Large-scale and indiscriminate’

For years, China was considered the United States’ main cyber adversary, having coordinated teams both inside and outside the government conducting cyberespionage campaigns that were “large-scale and indiscriminate,” Josephine Wolff, an associate professor of cybersecurity policy at Tufts University, told VOA.

The 2014-15 hack on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, in which the personnel records of 22 million federal workers were compromised, was a case in point — a “big grab,” she said.

After a 2015 cybersecurity agreement between then-U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, attacks from China declined, at least against the West, experts say.

Hacking rising with rhetoric

But as tensions rose between Beijing and Washington during the Trump presidency, Chinese cyberespionage also increased. Over the past year, experts have attributed notable hacks in the U.S., Europe and Asia to China’s Ministry of State Security, the nation’s civilian intelligence agency, which has taken the lead in Beijing’s cyberespionage, consolidating efforts by the People’s Liberation Army.

TAG-28, a Chinese state-sponsored hacking team focused on the Indian subcontinent, reportedly infiltrated targets that included the Indian government agency in charge of a database of biometric and digital identity information for more than 1 billion people, according to The Record, a media site focused on cybersecurity.

A Microsoft report released in October accuses the Chinese hacking group Chromium of targeting universities in Hong Kong and Taiwan and going after other countries’ governments and telecommunication providers.

Hafnium, the name Microsoft gave to a Chinese hacking group, was behind the Microsoft Exchange hack earlier this year, according to the company and the Biden administration. Chinese hacking teams, Microsoft reported, took advantage of a weakness in the software to grab what they could before an emergency patch could be issued.

Scooping up data

A National Public Radio investigation asserted that the Microsoft Exchange hack may have been, in part, an information scoop aimed at acquiring large amounts of data to train China’s artificial intelligence assets.

Hafnium also targets higher education, defense industry firms, think tanks, law firms and nongovernmental organizations, the Microsoft report said. Another group from China, Nickel — also known as APT15 and Vixen Panda — targets governments in Central and South America and Europe, Microsoft said.

“What you are seeing now is this realization that Chinese espionage never disappeared and has become more technologically sophisticated,” Wolff said.

White House response

The Biden administration has stepped up its response to Chinese hacking. Over the summer, the U.S. and its allies, including the European Union, NATO and the United Kingdom, accused China of being behind the Microsoft hack and called on Beijing to cease the activity.

The Biden administration has not indicted anyone related to the Microsoft Exchange hack, nor has it instituted economic or other sanctions against China.

However, the U.S. unsealed in July an indictment against four members of China’s Ministry of State Security in a separate attack conducted by a group that security researchers call Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) 40, Bronze, Mohawk and other names.

A Chinese government spokesman demanded that the U.S. drop the charges and denied the nation was behind the Microsoft Exchange hack.

“The United States ganged up with its allies to make unwarranted accusations against Chinese cybersecurity,” said Zhao Lijian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, in a July statement. “This was made up out of thin air and confused right and wrong. It is purely a smear and suppression with political motives.”

Pushing back

While China has stepped up its use of hacking, it has not crossed what some cyber experts say is a bright line in cyberespionage: public, overt hacks, such as the Russian disinformation campaign to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election and, in May, the Colonial Pipeline ransomware hack, which was attributed to Russian-based cybercriminals.

China’s aims appear to be long term and both economic and strategic, such as shoring up its capabilities “so they are not only well defended but surpass capacities,” Philip Reiner, the CEO of the Institute for Security and Technology, told VOA.

A collective push from world leaders that cyberespionage is unacceptable might resonate with Chinese leaders in Beijing, who want to be accepted on the world stage, he said. Detailing clear consequences for state-sponsored hacks is also critical, he said.

Without a strong push from the U.S. and its allies, experts say, China’s state-sponsored cyberattacks will continue.

Source: Voice of America

Russian Agency: More than 49,000 Died From COVID-19 in August

Russia’s state statistics service reported nearly 50,000 coronavirus deaths in the country in August, taking the toll since the beginning of the pandemic to over 400,000, nearly double the official government figure.

Rosstat released its figures late Friday, reporting that 49,389 people died from COVID-19 in August, a figure much higher than 24,661, the government tally for the same month.

Overall, Rosstat says around 418,000 people have died in Russia since the pandemic began. This nearly doubles the official total death toll of 214,000 published by the Russian coronavirus task force earlier Friday.

Russian officials explained the discrepancy, saying COVID-19 deaths are counted differently by the two agencies. The government coronavirus task force counts only fatalities for which an autopsy confirms COVID-19 as the primary cause of death, while Rosstat uses a broader definition for deaths linked to the virus.

In other developments Friday, the World Health Organization announced it has established and released the first standardized clinical definition of what is commonly known as “long COVID” to help boost treatment for sufferers.

Speaking virtually to reporters from the agency’s Geneva headquarters, WHO Head of Clinical Management Janet Diaz said the definition was agreed on after global consultations with health officials.

She said the condition, in which symptoms of the illness persist well beyond what is commonly experienced, is usually referred to as “post COVID.” Moreover, it occurs in people who have had confirmed or probable new coronavirus infections, “usually three months on from the onset of the COVID-19, with symptoms that last for at least two months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis.”

Those symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath and cognitive dysfunction, she said, but there also are others that generally have an adverse effect on everyday functioning. Diaz said that until now, a lack of clarity among health care professionals about the condition has complicated efforts in advancing research and treatment.

In the United States, officials said they would accept the use by international travelers of any COVID-19 vaccine authorized by U.S. regulators or the WHO. Last month, the White House announced that it would lift travel restrictions on people from 33 countries who show proof of vaccination. Officials did not say at that time which vaccines would be accepted, however.

The Associated Press reports that the number of Americans getting COVID-19 vaccines has reached a three-month high, averaging 1 million per day, as more employers mandate the shots and some Americans seek boosters. That figure is almost double the level for mid-July but still well below last spring, according to the AP.

Meanwhile, a senior White House official announced Friday that the U.S. government is shipping more than 1.8 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to the Philippines — a donation that will be executed through the WHO-managed COVAX vaccine cooperative. The doses will arrive in two shipments, probably Sunday and Monday, according to the official.

U.S. drugmaker Moderna announced earlier Friday it was planning to deliver another 1 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to low-income countries next year. In a message posted to the company’s website, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said the company was investing to expand its capacity to deliver the additional doses.

The disclosure is part of what Bancel describes as his company’s five-pillar strategy to ensure low-income countries get access to the company’s vaccine. The plan includes not enforcing its vaccine patents, expanding its production capacity worldwide, and working with the United States and others to distribute their surplus doses of vaccine.

Source: Voice of America