>
AI-Powered "Digital Workers" Deployed At Major Bank To Work Alongside Humans
New 'Mind Reading" AI Predicts What Humans Do Next
Dr. Bryan Ardis Says Food Producers Add 'Obesogens' to Food and Drugs to Make Us Fat
Health Ranger Report: Team AGES exposes Big Pharma's cancer scam and threats from AI
xAI Grok 3.5 Renamed Grok 4 and Has Specialized Coding Model
AI goes full HAL: Blackmail, espionage, and murder to avoid shutdown
BREAKING UPDATE Neuralink and Optimus
1900 Scientists Say 'Climate Change Not Caused By CO2' – The Real Environment Movement...
New molecule could create stamp-sized drives with 100x more storage
DARPA fast tracks flight tests for new military drones
ChatGPT May Be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills, According to a New MIT Study
How China Won the Thorium Nuclear Energy Race
Sunlight-Powered Catalyst Supercharges Green Hydrogen Production by 800%
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been on a persistent upswing this year, but they're still pretty volatile. But during a time when even some of the most developed economies in the word are watching their currencies bounce around like the Argentine peso (just take a look at a six-month chart for GBPUSD), New Zealand has decided to take the plunge and become the first country to legalize payment in bitcoin, the FT reports.
The ruling by New Zealand's tax authority allows salaries and wages to be paid in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin from September 1, as long as the payments are in regular, fixed amounts. The digital currency of choice must also be pegged to at least one regular currency and must be able to be converted directly into a standard form of payment.
This makes New Zealand the first country to legally support payment in crypto. There are, however, some stipulations: In a bulletin dated Aug. 7, New Zealand's Inland Revenue excluded self-employed taxpayers from earning incomes in cryptocurrencies, and added that some companies that choose to pay their employees in bitcoin or other crypto will be able to withhold tax under New Zealand's 'pay as you earn' income tax scheme.
Crypto enthusiasts celebrated the decision on Twitter.
Move over kiwi --- New Zealand becomes the first country to legalize salaries paid in cyrpto -- would you want to get paid in bitcoin?
— annmarie hordern (@annmarie) August 13, 2019
https://t.co/8kFPyQSwyq via @financialtimes
It's also notable that the decision to allow payment in bitcoin comes around the time that the RBNZ slashed its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points, causing the kiwi to crater earlier this month. The RBNZ's board cited downside risks to inflation and jobs as its reason for the cut. The Kiwi is now near its weakest level against the dollar since 2015. Economists said the dramatic cut appeared to be an attempt by the bank to get out in front of a slowing global economy, since NZ's domestic economic data hardly necessitated such a dramatic action.