Latest news with #Nauru
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Nauru seeks to transform its economy by becoming a cryptocurrency powerhouse
Nauru's Command Ridge Virtual Asset Authority creates a licensing and regulatory scheme for digital asset transfers, including cryptocurrency lending and exchange. Photo: RNZ Pacific / AFP An Australian finance director has flown to Nauru with ambitions to turn it into the crypto powerhouse of the Pacific. Nauru's newly minted Command Ridge Virtual Asset Authority creates a licensing and regulatory scheme for digital asset transfers, including cryptocurrency lending and exchange. It makes Nauru the first nation in Oceania to regulate digital finance. Brian Phelps, the new chief executive of the CRVAA , told RNZ Pacific that it could transform the Nauru economy, and potentially that of the whole region. "Nauru is a vulnerable country in terms of its economy, and the whole idea of setting this up is to think innovatively about how to resolve some of [those] concerns and build a better economic future." If a trusted, stable regulator existed, Phelps said, it could lay the foundation for money flows in the Pacific to go fully digital, as they set the example for other nations developing their own regimes. Thus, it could be transformational for key revenue streams, such as remittances, Phelps added. "You've probably heard of Western Union and businesses. I have a view that Nauru could become a remittance payment provider for itinerant workers throughout the Pacific who would like to send money home. "A safe, secure means of doing that now is through things like a stablecoin." This comes as traditional remittance payment systems become more risky. On 3 July, Australia's financial crime enforcer AUSTRAC announced an audit of Western Union, the Pacific's largest remittance provider, for gaps in its anti-money laundering systems, including poor customer due diligence, and non-reporting of suspisious transactions. Phelps has pondered whether Nauru could compete with Western Union in the remittance game. "These are just ideas for Nauru to look to develop its capability." Brian Phelps is the newly appointed CEO of Nauru's Command Ridge Virtual Asset Authority. Photo: Facebook / The Government of the Republic of Nauru In most countries, cryptocurrencies have operated within a legal grey area, as more and more businesses begin to accept them as a medium of exchange, without state laws recognising them as legal tender. Over the last few years, nations have begun to bring them within a special legislative framework, with the aim of making them more stable and thus reliable. In the United States, the chief outcome of a week dubbed "Crypto week" by House Republicans was the GENUIS Act, which ruled that cryptocurrencies called "stablecoins" had to be pegged 1 to 1 to the US Dollar, providing them greater stability as an investment. Meanwhile, in countries like China, the use of cryptocurrencies by individuals remains heavily restricted. Pacific Islands have met the rise of crypto with enthusiasm, Phelps said. "In Palau, for instance, they are developing a digital residency program and a stablecoin program in that country (for) cross border transactions. And Fiji and Vanuatu have been investing in opportunities around a central bank digital currency," Around that time, the ABC reported that the Pacific was becoming a "testing ground" for the crypto world. For example, an Oxfam project using blockchain technology for humanitarian aid, which has been supported by MFAT and Australian Aid, used Vanuatu as a testing ground after Tropical Cyclone Harold in 2019. The program, called "UnBlocked", uses a digital payment system with special vendors at aid supply sites, operational across Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. According to Oxfam, more than 35,000 people in the Pacific have benefited from it. In terms of becoming legal tender, though politicians like Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka have championed crypto, central banks have often cautioned against it. In Tonga, the ambitions of the late Lord Fusitu'a - who passed away in February 2024 - to make Bitcoin a legal tender never panned out. For Tuvalu, the problem is more existential, as climate change threatens the country's infrastructure; indeed the very land it sits on. In 2021, Tuvalu was establishing a "national digital ledger" using a digital currency linked to a blockchain, something that is still in the works.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Nauru seeks transform its economy by becoming a cryptocurrency powerhouse
Nauru's Command Ridge Virtual Asset Authority creates a licensing and regulatory scheme for digital asset transfers, including cryptocurrency lending and exchange. Photo: RNZ Pacific / AFP An Australian finance director has flown to Nauru with ambitions to turn it into the crypto powerhouse of the Pacific. Nauru's newly minted Command Ridge Virtual Asset Authority creates a licensing and regulatory scheme for digital asset transfers, including cryptocurrency lending and exchange. It makes Nauru the first nation in Oceania to regulate digital finance. Brian Phelps, the new chief executive of the CRVAA , told RNZ Pacific that it could transform the Nauru economy, and potentially that of the whole region. "Nauru is a vulnerable country in terms of its economy, and the whole idea of setting this up is to think innovatively about how to resolve some of [those] concerns and build a better economic future." If a trusted, stable regulator existed, Phelps said, it could lay the foundation for money flows in the Pacific to go fully digital, as they set the example for other nations developing their own regimes. Thus, it could be transformational for key revenue streams, such as remittances, Phelps added. "You've probably heard of Western Union and businesses. I have a view that Nauru could become a remittance payment provider for itinerant workers throughout the Pacific who would like to send money home. "A safe, secure means of doing that now is through things like a stablecoin." This comes as traditional remittance payment systems become more risky. On 3 July, Australia's financial crime enforcer AUSTRAC announced an audit of Western Union, the Pacific's largest remittance provider, for gaps in its anti-money laundering systems, including poor customer due diligence, and non-reporting of suspisious transactions. Phelps has pondered whether Nauru could compete with Western Union in the remittance game. "These are just ideas for Nauru to look to develop its capability." Brian Phelps is the newly appointed CEO of Nauru's Command Ridge Virtual Asset Authority. Photo: Facebook / The Government of the Republic of Nauru In most countries, cryptocurrencies have operated within a legal grey area, as more and more businesses begin to accept them as a medium of exchange, without state laws recognising them as legal tender. Over the last few years, nations have begun to bring them within a special legislative framework, with the aim of making them more stable and thus reliable. In the United States, the chief outcome of a week dubbed "Crypto week" by House Republicans was the GENUIS Act, which ruled that cryptocurrencies called "stablecoins" had to be pegged 1 to 1 to the US Dollar, providing them greater stability as an investment. Meanwhile, in countries like China, the use of cryptocurrencies by individuals remains heavily restricted. Pacific Islands have met the rise of crypto with enthusiasm, Phelps said. "In Palau, for instance, they are developing a digital residency program and a stablecoin program in that country (for) cross border transactions. And Fiji and Vanuatu have been investing in opportunities around a central bank digital currency," Around that time, the ABC reported that the Pacific was becoming a "testing ground" for the crypto world. For example, an Oxfam project using blockchain technology for humanitarian aid, which has been supported by MFAT and Australian Aid, used Vanuatu as a testing ground after Tropical Cyclone Harold in 2019. The program, called "UnBlocked", uses a digital payment system with special vendors at aid supply sites, operational across Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. According to Oxfam, more than 35,000 people in the Pacific have benefited from it. In terms of becoming legal tender, though politicians like Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka have championed crypto, central banks have often cautioned against it. In Tonga, the ambitions of the late Lord Fusitu'a - who passed away in February 2024 - to make Bitcoin a legal tender never panned out. For Tuvalu, the problem is more existential, as climate change threatens the country's infrastructure; indeed the very land it sits on. In 2021, Tuvalu was establishing a "national digital ledger" using a digital currency linked to a blockchain, something that is still in the works.
RNZ News
23-07-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Pacific Waves for 24 July 2025
Widespread change pushed by Bougainville presidential candidate; Australian financier's crypto ambitions for Nauru; NZ photographer's poetic journey into PNG. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
RNZ News
23-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Tiny Nauru is causing big waves over mining
An image from the National Oceanography Centre shows a carnivorous sponge, photographed during an expedition to the NE Pacific abyss and found in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ). A recent executive order by US President Donald Trump could open the door to Nauru deep sea mining in the CCZ. Photo: National Oceanography Centre/ AFP One of the smallest islands in the South Pacific is causing some big waves right now. Nauru, just 21 square kilometres and with a population of 12,000, has opened the door to a deep sea mining company to explore and potentially harvest the sea bottom for minerals and resources. It can do that under International Seabed Authority (ISA) rules because it's one of 19 "sponsoring states" that's been allocated an area of the Pacific in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, that it can potentially benefit from. Nauru signed a partnership with The Metals Company in 2011 to research what minerals and resources were on the seabed. Now, that company is becoming impatient with the slow progress on the ISA in drawing up rules for deep sea mining in international waters, and has found a way around them. Most of the world - that's 169 countries plus the European Union - are members of the ISA, but the USA has never signed up, retaining its right to mine the seabed. Until recently however, it hasn't authorised anyone to do that, and it's been assumed that because it has played by the rules, it agrees to them. But this year President Donald Trump signed an executive order to fast track deep sea mining off the US coast, and The Metals Company saw another pathway to begin mining. Nauru meanwhile is bound by the agreement it signed up to. That includes, under its sponsoring state responsibilities, exercising effective control over any activities in its patch of the CCZ. That means things like checking the contractor is sticking to the terms of the contract, and that all the paperwork is in order. It also must "apply a precautionary approach" and promote best environmental practice, respond to incidents and inquire into them, keep records, liaise with the ISA, and monitor and inspect activities. Environmental law experts say not only does this sort of "rogue mine" operation pose enormous risks to the largely unexplored seabed, but it would also see Nauru breaking its obligations to the rules it signed up to. Professor Karen Scott is a Canterbury University expert who's been working in the area of international law of the sea for 25 years. She specifically researches ocean environmental issues, and is the editor of the journal Ocean Development and International Law. "I would suggest that Nauru is very much being driven by the interests of The Metals Company, which obviously is a commercial organisation," she says. "And whilst clearly there are good reasons for supporting Nauru's economic development and the welfare of Nauru people, I think there's an equally good argument that that should not come at the cost of potentially significant environmental harm, which may well affect all states." Nauru stands to make millions from the venture, and it will also provide jobs for its people. Nauru's president has argued at the UN that the benefits of taking minerals to use them for batteries to increase electrification outweigh any environmental damage that might be caused. The chief executive of The Metals Company, Gerard Barron, is on record saying it's a less harmful way of getting the minerals we need than land-based mining in places such as Indonesia, where vast jungles are being ripped up to get minerals such as nickel. But one of the reasons that work to create an international rulebook over such mining has taken over a decade of debate and is still nowhere near completion is that we still don't know exactly what's in these ocean depths, and how they contribute to the ecosystem. On today's episode of The Detail , Karen Scott goes through the complexities of who rules the sea; and we also hear from RNZ Pacific journalist Teuila Fuatai, who's been across the subject. She points out that one of the big issues here is that there just isn't a lot of research on an area that is three to four kilometres deep in the ocean. "It's pitch black ... we don't know what the sea life is down there, and it's being researched by mining companies or deep sea exploration companies because they're interested in these deep sea minerals or polymetallic nodules. "They've got to put forward a case as to whether mining is financially viable and what the environmental impacts of that could be." Fuatai says The Metals Company, funded by shareholders, is frustrated by the amount of time it's taking the ISA to formulate regulations on deep sea mining, including how much can be taken. The process started in 2014 and hasn't got far. ISA members are meeting in Jamaica right now trying to get a draft agreement. In the meantime, New Zealand is one of 37 nations calling for a moratorium on deep sea mining in international waters until those rules are sorted out. Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here . You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter .
RNZ News
19-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Tagata o te Moana for 19 July 2025
In Tagata o Te Moana this week Sam Kauona is again vying to become President of Bougainville. An agreement is signed that may end the political impasse in New Caledonia. Nauru gets closer to a controversial seabed mining deal. The NZ government in a fit of pique ignore Cook Islands 60th anniversary celebrations. All these stories and more from the RNZ Pacific team. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
