Vaccinating ourselves from local courts
A pandemic is plaguing the cryptocurrency industry today, yet most of us don’t yet know we’re infected. These diseases arise from extreme exposure to hundreds of national and local laws, jurisdictions, rules, and unknown legal risks due to engaging in open global systems in a world that is largely still clinging to nation-centric, hyper-local rules and controls.
All You Need to Know About Initial Coin Offerings
Understand the increasing tension between business model innovation and securities regulation
Global trade association for regulated financial exchanges finds overwhelming interest in blockchain tech among members
The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) recently published a 14-page report outlining the results of an in-depth survey on how exchanges and financial market infrastructure providers use blockchain technology, and what their perspectives are.
House of Lords told Bank of England’s digital currency is ‘some way off’
Earlier today in the Palace of Westminster, the 13-member Economic Affairs Committee of the United Kingdom's House of Lords took evidence from the Bank of England (BoE), academia, and industry experts during a “one-off inquiry into distributed ledger or blockchain technology.”
Seeking justice: No ID required
Most justice systems today require identification as a precondition to participation. In 10 years of legal practice, I’ve never had a client ask why ID is required. We simply accept, without question, that in order to get justice we must disclose identity. But what if that’s not true? Can we uncouple identity and justice?
P2P markets need P2P justice
Peer-to-peer marketplaces are forcing change on the systems we use for dispute resolution. Algorithmic dispute resolution, software-guided settlement negotiation, and even full-service stepped mediation to arbitration online dispute resolution (ODR) projects [all existed](http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1073&context=dltr) in 2002–2003. Yet despite the promise of lower costs, faster speed, and jurisdictional autonomy, most of those projects have long been abandoned. They simply didn’t catch on. Now, with the invention of bitcoin, open blockchains, and smart contracts, there’s a renewed interest in these services.
Report Of The First Round Table Discussion To Develop Instructive Guidance On The Regulation Of Crypto Currencies In Uganda
This report covers the panel talks, discussions, recommendations and the draft guiding principles. The second roundtable event is scheduled to take place in July 2017.
The European Commission’s divide over cryptocurrency regulation grows wider
The European Union (EU) is currently in a battle over how to treat bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Opposing camps from within the European Commission (EC) both released separate reports dealing with new regulations over cryptocurrencies on Tuesday.
America’s regulatory issue is too many cooks
I’ve had a few meetings with folks at the White House over the past eighteen months, which has been an honour and not something I felt I should blog about. The National Economic Council woke up to the FinTech world early last year and have been consulting with many in the FinTech ecosystem. The latest meeting was a FinTech Summit for a select few at the White House last Friday. I was lucky enough to be one of the select few and thought I’d blog about the four key panel discussions that took place this week.
Bitfinex pays $75,000 to settle with CFTC for offering illegal bitcoin transactions and failing to register
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has ordered Bitfinex to pay $75,000 for offering illegal off-exchange financed retail commodity transactions, and failing to register as a futures commission merchant. Formed under the laws of the British Virgin Islands, with their official headquarters in Hong Kong, Bitfinex operates one of Bitcoin’s most popular platforms for exchanging and trading bitcoins, litecoins, and ether.
Amidst bitcoin boom, Russia plans its own cryptocurrency
Russian media recently revealed plans to create a national cryptocurrency to be used alongside the ruble. The Federal Financial Monitoring Service's (Rosfinmonitoring), released the plan to TV stations and newspapers across the country. Deputy Director of Rosfinmonitoring, Pavel Livadny, hopes that the new currency will be more convenient for Russians, and reduce the costs related to financial transactions. At the same time, there are plans to ban all other cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin.
Social KYC: far easier than passports and utility bills
I just received a white paper about Social KYC from Fintech startup Veridu. The idea is to use our social media profiles to authenticate and onboard as a new 21st century KYC process. It’s an interesting idea I thought I’d share here but, before I do, I posted a note in 2009 that recommended banks to use social media as a way of verifying whether customers could be trusted, a social KYC if you like.
Blockchain identity management
Having moved to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, following Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s Digital Transformation Office is looking for vendors to contribute identity management solutions. The endeavor was rumored last year, which either inspired or provoked AusPost to search for blockchain identity management solutions.
Liberty Reserve court case marks the dawn of a new era
Before Satoshi Nakamoto was able to figure out the right recipe for decentralizing currency, there were several attempts at centralized online currencies, or ‘internet money,’ unaffiliated with any state. The last of the bunch to thrive outside of the U.S. financial framework was the Costa Rican startup Liberty Reserve, which was taken down in 2013. Friday’s sentencing of the corporations founder, Arthur Budovsky, landed him in a U.S. prison for 20 years, and requires him to pay a US$500,000 fine for the crime of money laundering.
Standards: Collaboration or Cartel
I had a lovely conversation with a group of investment bankers last night about technology transformation in capital markets. During the opening, a consistent theme cropped up: standards, interoperability, collaboration and cooperation … or lack of it. It is interesting that, in the buy and sell side world, few standards have worked except for FIX Protocol in the front office. SWIFT has tried to create standards in post-trade settlement for years and struggled, but at least SWIFT has managed to crack some of that nut. MiFID and Dodd-Frank have also started a regulatory resolution to standards inconsistencies, and therefore by law can force the markets to create efficiency. Or can they?
Social KYC for Cryptocurrencies
This paper offers some ideas about identity verifi cation in an online world. It explores some common challenges when using traditional methods, and will introduce a new approach â social KYC, using a personâs digital footprint and online social identities to instantly verify and authenticate their identity with a high degree of confidence. This approach can also be used to reduce fraud and to manage compliance requirements as a complementary approach with other forms of KYC and IDV as required.
