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Day: 17 February 2021

Restrictions extended for a month

by: Cassandra Tanti
17/02/2021

Monaco’s current measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic have been extended for another four weeks until 19th March.
According to a statement released by the government on Wednesday, the decision was taken by Prince Albert after consultation by his government with the National Council as part of the Joint Monitoring Committee.
It means that the 7pm to 6am curfew will remain in place for the next month, as well as a ban on night time dining at restaurants, mandatory restaurant reservations, a maximum of six people per table, and service between 11am and 3pm only.
Compulsory teleworking in the private and public sectors also remains in force.
“The aim is to reduce the influx of people from outside the Principality while maintaining economic activity,” said the government. “While a massive screening of more than 5,000 tests per week is taking place, the figures show that the circulation of the virus is still active in the Principality.”
The government acknowledged that the incidence rate is trending downwards, but added that “it remains high, placing the Principality at the level recorded at the end of December 2020.”
As reported in Monaco Life this week, the latest figures indicate that there were 276 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants over a period of seven days.
“This downward trend is also observed at the level of hospitalisations, but here too, the number of patients treated at the CHPG remains high: this Tuesday, 16th February, there were 54 patients. The health situation therefore requires us not to lower our guard,” said the government.
Health authorities also reported the death of an 88-year-old resident who tested positive for Covid, marking the 22nd coronavirus-related fatality since the pandemic began.
The government continue to insist that citizens remain vigilant in the private sphere where more than half of contaminations occur, respecting social distancing, hygiene measures, and basic protocols like not sharing cutlery.
 
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Government: Monaco Grand Prix is a go

by: Cassandra Tanti
17/02/2021

The government says it is pushing ahead with hosting the Monaco Grand Prix this year, as well as the E-Prix and the Historic Grand Prix, with installation of the infrastructure set to begin in a matter of days, including spectator stands.
“After a 2020 year deprived of motor racing on the circuit – the events having been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic – the Principality is resuming its routine and preparing to host three Grands Prix from 23rd April to 23rd May 2021,” said the government in a statement on Wednesday afternoon, adding, “The 2021 edition promises to be exceptional.”
It is a racing trifecta this season, with the world-famous Formula One Grand Prix, the Historic Monaco Grand Prix and the Monaco E-Prix all being held in the same year. Normally, the races are alternated for organisational purposes.
As a result of the full schedule, installation of the circuit, which normally begins seven weeks before the first event, has been brought forward by a fortnight as the Historic Grand Prix is set to take place on 23rd April.
In addition to the annual asphalt resurfacing, works will include the installation of the infrastructure necessary for safety, development, television broadcasts, public reception, and advertising as well as dedicated accesses and public pathways.
The assembly work and related restrictions will begin on 23rd February in the port area and on 31st March in the Monte-Carlo district. The necessary adjustments to traffic as well as parking bans will be implemented and gradually lifted depending on the area.
 
Archive photo by Michael Alesi / Communication Department
 
 

Understanding bitcoin and the great crypto boom

by: Cassandra Tanti
17/02/2021

In our Q&A with Daniel Coheur, co-founder of Tokeny in Monaco, we explore what is behind the monumental rise of bitcoin and the paradigm shift from centralised to decentralised finance.

What a difference a year makes. Less than 12 months ago, bitcoin was sitting at $3,000 and everyone was looking forward to a normal year ahead.

Enter Covid-19 and the digital currency breaks into a bull run, spawning a new community of retail investors who have a lot of free time on their hands.

All of a sudden Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy chief executive officer, is calling bitcoin “digital gold” and “the scarcest asset in the world”; the planet’s richest man, Elon Musk, makes waves with Tesla’s announcement that it bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin; and traders analysts say institution investment is happening “at a staggering pace”.

Bitcoin hit its all-time high of $50K on Tuesday and the digital asset continues to make inroads into traditional finance, including news that an investment unit of Morgan Stanley is considering whether to bet on bitcoin.

So, what is this great crypto boom?

Well, there is a saying in the digital community that “You don’t get crypto, until you do”. To help explain the phenomenon, Monaco Life spoke to Daniel Coheur, co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Tokeny, a digital solutions company that the Monaco government has entrusted with securing its blockchain finance platform.

Monaco Life: How would you describe what has happened over the past six to 12 months with regards to bitcoin?

Daniel Coheur: When you have something like bitcoin that is not is backed by government, then trust becomes essential.

There may have been a very active community of people who believed in the technology and its potential as a future store of value by excellence next to gold, but there was no signal from the main actor of this ecosystem that it was the case.

The regulator helped significantly by allowing hedge funds to start investing, but that went largely unnoticed.

Then came people who were “visible”. The first to really take a stand was Michael Saylor, founder of MicroStrategy, who said that his company was going to buy bitcoin. Today, they have more than $3 billion US in bitcoin, so that certainly pushed things ahead.

Then Laurence Fink from BlackRock said that bitcoin could become an equivalent store of value as gold. Blackrock has $8 billion under management, so if those guys say that, it really means something. Not only BlackRock, but hedge funds in general were saying: “Ok, now we should invest.” Then, Elon Musk brought $1.5 billion bitcoin with Tesla.

It is what people needed to see – that the world’s biggest institutions were getting involved.
Meanwhile, according to the Bank of America, Americans are sitting on $1.6 trillion of spare cash, having not been able to spend money due to Covid-19 and the lockdowns. In the UK, household savings of typically $5 billion are now over $20 billion. With time on their hands and cash to play with, more people have been investing in cryptos.

So, the number of transactions began increasing, as well as the number of accounts. The number of individual Ethereum wallets has grown from 34 million at the beginning of 2020 to over 51 million at the end of 2020.

Last but not least, Decentralised Finance (DeFi) really pushed this forward by providing a means to show how the technology could be used and how, based on those crypto assets, you could make even more money than on the speculative side of investing.

So, I think all of this has been pushing the market to realise that this is not something that will disappear, and everyone that was passive is now looking to invest. That is what has been driving the price of bitcoin.

Where do you see bitcoin going this year?

If it is indeed becoming a store of value that is comparable to gold (people have been claiming that it will reach $200,000 by the end of 2021), is that the limit?

There is a reality that the market can’t ignore: unlike the euro or dollar, you cannot mine bitcoin forever. There is a limited amount of bitcoin and that is a certainty – there is nothing you can do about it.

Canada has approved the first North American Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, Deutsche Bank is planning to offer crypto custody to hedge funds that invest in the asset class, BNY Mellon will roll out its own digital custody unit, and Morgan Stanley Investment Management is exploring whether bitcoin would be a suitable option for its investors. Is there still a place for retail traders in bitcoin and do you see it becoming mainstream?

What is important to remember is that all of these companies are involved in blockchain projects. Besides the value that they place on the currency itself, they have developed a good understanding of the technology. Until recently, institutional investors had no industry grade digital custody solutions. Now, your banker can buy bitcoins or digital securities and have solutions delivered by companies like BitGo, Metaco or Pyctor to safely custody them. The technology risk has been overcome and its simplicity is being made available to investors.

There is a lot of proof of concept that is being run not only to use bitcoins but to understand how, with this technology, banks can upgrade their current infrastructure. The perception of technology is not a barrier of entry for them anymore.

Michael Saylor famously said it first, and Jim Cramer, host of Mad Money on CNBC, repeated it recently, that it would be “irresponsible” for hedge fund managers and companies not to own bitcoin. Do you agree with that statement?

Every financial product has an associated risk, which is driven by the profile of investors – you sign-up, you identity your risk profile, and then you invest according to that.
What would be irresponsible is if you have customers that are willing to take that risk and you are not able to offer them the option.

What is the difference between bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies?
Bitcoin signaled the emergence of a radically new form of digital money that operates outside the control of any government or corporation. With time, people began to realise that one of the underlying innovations of bitcoin, the blockchain, could be utilised for other purposes. Ethereum proposed to utilise blockchain technology not only for maintaining a decentralised payment network but to power decentralised finance. Ethereum applications and contracts are powered by ether, the Ethereum network’s currency, which is now the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation.

It is a different perspective with regards to investing in ether versus bitcoin, because they each serve a very different purpose. For a currency that is considered a store of value, it depends on how much trust people put into those currencies, while for other altcoins that are pouring into infrastructure, it depends on how much potential you see in that infrastructure and what the limitations are behind it.

It takes around 10 minutes of computer time to “mine” one bitcoin. That’s equivalent to 72,000GW of electricity. Energy usage is therefore one of cryptocurrencies’ biggest negatives. How do you see this problem being solved in the future?

It is not something that will change with bitcoin because that is simply the way it operates.
However, Ethereum – which is the dominant public blockchain to power financial transactions – is moving from proof of work to proof of stake, and this will address the issue. Ethereum is not the only one doing this, there are other blockchains gaining in popularity that are using the same kind of consensus mechanism. Polkadot is one that is progressing critically fast. Speed and energy consumption are driving the adoption of the technology as an infrastructure, and when you know that there are 300,000 developers working Ethereum, you understand that this is just a matter of time.

Do you see blockchain changing the future of finance?

What makes blockchain unique is trust, so it will definitely change market infrastructures. Without trust, you need third parties to manage your counterparty risk, a custodian to preserve the integrity of your assets, etc. Very soon, we will no longer see blockchain only as a store of value for bitcoin. Blockchain will be behind every transfer of value. Right now, that is money, but it will soon be anything carrying value – like art, property, or a car, starting of course with securities.
Blockchain and smart contracts will be mainstream in the future and everybody will use it without even noticing. It will be like email is today – no one cares what protocol is behind it, they are only confronted with it when their laptop crashes and they have to reinstall their email.

Where does Monaco sit in this digital paradigm shift?
There has been a lot of work from the National Council and the Government to provide the regulatory framework for Monaco to position itself within this technology. There is the law that was published last year on STOs, and now there is a proposal from the National Council to allow the digital registration on a shared ledger of unlisted company securities. Tokeny has the technology to power that kind of solution; once the share registry is digitised then you can introduce many other services such as online voting. It will also facilitate the transfer of shares and make the process more transparent and more in line with international regulations.

But this is one element of a much bigger picture that Frédéric Genta is overseeing through Extended Monaco and the digitalisation of the economy.
Everything that can be digitalised, will be digitalised, because Monaco wants to be running at the front of the pack.

Related stories:
Monaco advances its digital finance strategy
Daniel Coheur: “Our ambition is to protect Monaco’s reputation”
Prince: Digital is the turning point in Monaco’s history

Photo source: Pixabay

Crime down, misdemeanours up in 2020

by: Stephanie Horsman
17/02/2021

Monaco saw a clear decline in criminal offences in 2020 compared to the previous year, though tickets and warnings for breaking Covid-related rules kept the force busy.  

The report on crime statistics for 2020 was presented on Tuesday by Minister of the Interior Patrice Cellario and Richard Marangoni, Monaco’s Director of Public Security, who referred to a year significantly marked by the Covid-19 pandemic. The health crisis mobilised police officers, he said, to enforce rules ordered by the Prince and his government.  

Therefore, from March 2020, police carried out 24,415 checks which resulted in 19,299 warnings and 5,116 fines.

The crisis, said the director of public security, was partly responsible for the decline in crime, not only because of the larger presence of police on the streets, but also because of lockdown and restrictions.

Crime other than Covid-related incidents dropped by 19%, with 712 delinquent crimes in 2020 compared to 889 in 2019.

An even larger drop in street crime was witnessed. In 2020, there were a mere 60 incidents, compared to 90 the year before, a dramatic 33% decline.

“It was a ‘particular’ year. It was exceptional. I am happy to say that crime in general is lower,” said Mr Marangoni. “There was a 33% drop in crimes that touch many people such as robberies, car theft, muggings, street violence, vandalism… I think there is also a better quality of life for the residents this year already.”

The only crime that was on the rise in 2020 was related to driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, which the director of public security attributes to an increase in testing and therefore an increase in arrests.  

Other notable developments of 2020, said Richard Marangoni, were the introduction of the Living Environment Preservation Unit (UPCV), the renovations and updates at police headquarters, and the addition of a state-of-the-art new police boat, the Princess Gabriella, which will support sea rescue missions, stop ocean polluters, and conduct cross-border controls with the Principality’s neighbours.  

He closed by paying tribute to the 88 women of the force, making special note of the two who had been promoted to positions of responsibility, and expressed gratitude to all the force for the delicate handling of matters in difficult times over the past year.

 
Photo of Minister of the Interior Patrice Cellario and Monaco’s Director of Public Security Richard Marangoni and by Stéphane Danna for the Government Communication Department
 
 

France allows day trips to the Var

by: Cassandra Tanti
17/02/2021

Monaco residents will now be able to travel as far as the Var without having to present a negative Covid test, under a new relaxation of the 30km rule. But the Prince’s government is still fighting to have the 24-hour deadline lifted altogether.
It is the second exemption that French authorities have made for Monaco since the 30-kilometre travel restriction was introduced at the beginning of February.
Now, residents of the Principality can journey to the Var department without having to present a negative PCR test, as long as the trip is less than 24 hours. This is currently the case for travel from Monaco to the Alpes Maritimes department.
“This is an additional relaxation which is in line with what the Prince’s Government is asking the French authorities to do,” the government said in a statement late Tuesday evening.
As a result, the Prince’s Government says that it will reciprocate the move. It means that anyone coming from the Var to Monaco must present a negative PCR test of less than 72 hours. Commuter workers, schoolchildren and students, as well as residents of the Alpes-Maritimes and the Var coming to the Principality for less than 24 hours are exempt from this provision.
While welcoming the move, the government says that it still does not go far enough, and that it will “continue constructive dialogue with the French authorities in order to lift the 24-hour deadline which limits travel in the Var department as well as in the Alpes-Maritimes which constitute Monaco’s catchment area.”
 
Photo: Port Grimaud in the Var department, by Monaco Life all rights reserved
 
Related stories:

30km rule remains for long trips