This year will see the crypto-world faced with some very important decisions when it comes to regulation, says Scott Moore, CEO of Safex, a blockchain and digital currency firm.
Moore spoke at a conference this week on blockchain initiatives, where he predicted the crypto-world will witness a shift to over-regulated virtual currencies, underscoring the importance of crypto-financials to law firms.
Here are the highlights from the session:
Cryptocurrency regulation
Under the Bank of England regulations, bitcoin futures will have to be regulated in the UK, says Moore.
In this case, regulations for a commodity will be more onerous than other, well regulated products such as equities, he said.
Moore added that even “legitimate fintech” companies will be required to implement the compliance architecture required to comply with the requirements.
“The financial industry is the ideal place to deal with anti-money laundering issues. You have the solutions already in place,” said Moore.
Blockchain for Bitcoin
Moore was clear that Safex will not be doing a blockchain or crypto offering any time soon.
Rather, Safex will focus on building software to support blockchain technology, the kind of solutions required to quickly deploy software from a blockchain, Moore said.
“We don’t need to have physical mining equipment and massive amounts of processing power. It can be done by software,” he said.
“Everything that happens behind the blockchain is software. That’s our focus,” Moore said.