Digital currency and blockchain enthusiasts had a lot to talk about this week. Particularly, various prominent figures expressed their opinion on digital currencies and blockchain technology – some good, some not so good. Here are the top stories of this week that made waves in the cryptocurrency ecosystem:

North Carolina Senate approves digital currency bill

North Carolina Senate, the General Assembly of the state, on Monday approved an amendment to the state's Money Transmitters Act which will see addition of bitcoin to its existing law. With the approval of bill, bitcoin exchanges and other related companies in North Carolina should mandatorily obtain a money transmitter license.

French official Bernard Debré seeks to ban bitcoin in Paris

Bernard Debré, the deputy of the National Assembly of France, stated that the city should ban bitcoin due to the risk of rise in drug trafficking using the digital currency. He also said that La Maison du Bitcoin (House of Bitcoin) should be shut down in the French capital and believes that the move would stop the cryptocurrency operations in the city.

US presidential candidate Clinton voices her support to blockchain technology

A recently released Tech & Innovation Agenda has described Hillary Clinton’s vision that aims to harness the power of technology and innovation so as to benefit all citizens of the United States. While explaining the plan to advance the country’s global leadership in technology and innovation, it emphasized on the need to position American innovators to lead the world in the sphere of emerging technologies including blockchain.

Bitcoin is an asset, not real currency, says PBoC official

Sheng Songcheng, the director of the survey and statistics department of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), has said that only digital currencies issued by the central bank have national credit support to become the true sense of currency. Songcheng said that bitcoin is essentially just a use of techniques, and at best, is an asset, rather than a real currency.

Reserve Bank of India to explore blockchain to curb use of paper currency

H R Khan, Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently suggested that the Indian central bank could set up a committee in order to study the use of blockchain technology to curtail the use of paper currency. Khan highlighted that new technologies including mobile internet, cloud computing, virtual reality, blockchain technology and others need to be harnessed for improving payment and settlement systems.

Bitcoin exchange Bitso among winners of first Innotribe Startup Challenge for Latin America

Mexico-based digital currency exchange Bitso was among the three most promising fintech companies to have won the first Innotribe Startup Challenge for Latin America. The event was held in Mexico City on Wednesday 29 June, in partnership with SWIFT’s Latin America Regional Conference (LARC).

Blockchain research studies:

• Blockchain to transform economic equation for organizations, trust and value exchange: IBM
   
• Deutsche Bank expects commercially-viable blockchain implementations by 2017-end

Important deals, partnerships, and more:

• Bitcoin exchange Kraken adds CleverCoin to its global umbrella
   
• Coinsecure, BitPay team up to bring bitcoin payments to Indian merchants
   
• Chamber of Digital Commerce welcomes IBM and DTCC to its Executive Committee
   
• Brazilian bank Banco Bradesco joins R3-led blockchain consortium
   
• IBM’s new Bluemix Garage in New York to spur blockchain innovation
   
• Siemens’ new unit ‘next47’ to focus on AI, blockchain and autonomous machines
   
• Blocksafe network opens crowdsale for blockchain-based smart gun authentication system
   
• Chinese firms join forces to form new Financial Blockchain Shenzhen Consortium
   
• Online payments platform NetCents to integrate with PayPal
   
• BNP Paribas moves forward in its commitment to blockchain, opens innovation and digital lab (I&D Lab)
   
• SatoshiLabs partners with Tech Bureau to promote TREZOR bitcoin hardware wallet in Japan
   
• Winklevoss twins switch to BATS for bitcoin ETF listing