Regulation is a topic that makes many crypto enthusiasts sick to their stomachs, but CoinDesk's Aaron Stanley and Amy Davine Kim, the chief policy officer at The Chamber of Digital Commerce, take you on a whirlwind journey through a new set of rules governing crypto exchanges created by a powerful intergovernmental organization.
This episode is sponsored by ErisX, The Stellar Development Foundation and Grayscale Digital Large Cap Investment Fund.
Government regulators call the standards for regulating cryptocurrencies that were published in June of last year, nicknamed the Travel Rule, just recommendations.
But, really, they're not voluntary. They're rules every crypto exchange must follow or suffer the consequences.
Released by the Financial Action Task Force, a powerful intergovernmental organization that focuses on combating money laundering and terrorist financing, these standards were the topic of conversation on the latest episode of CoinDesk Live: Lockdown Edition.
During the conversation, CoinDesk's Aaron Stanley and Amy Davine Kim, the chief policy officer at The Chamber of Digital Commerce, had an exciting discussion on regulation (seems like an oxymoron). Kim outlined what the rules mean for crypto businesses and users alike as the deadline for compliance nears next month although Kim believes an extension might be issued because of the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
Other topics include:
- What's a FATF? It's the Financial Action Task Force and you need to be aware of its recommendations.
- What do those recommendations mean for crypto businesses? Hint: More compliance.
- Why have these recommendations proven quite complicated for crypto businesses to comply with?
- What's up with the recommendations being nicknamed the Travel Rule?
- Is this one of those QWERTY keyboard situations where it's the first and so will be used extensively even though it may not be the best layout?
- How regulators are struggling to govern these new crypto systems
- Why regulators are fixated on counterparties
- Any cost/benefit analysis to assess the burden of the recommendations?
- China's reaction to FATF recommendations
- How the COVID-19 crisis and subsequent lockdowns might affect FATF
- Do U.S. exchanges have a leg up on complying with these rules?
- Why the Libra "cryptocurrency" project, jump-started by Facebook, continues to get dragged
- Countries that are going about complying with FATF the right way and those that are doing it wrong
- Key FATF developments to watch
- Solutions that are being built to help exchanges comply with the recommendations
- It might not seem like it but relations have improved between regulators and crypto companies
Plus, there was some shameless, shameless plugging of our upcoming, completely virtual Consensus: Distributed conference, May 11-15, because the lineup is stacked! While you'll be able to watch our CoinDesk TV track through Twitter, you'll definitely want to register through Brella here to catch all our other amazing and interactive tracks, including the workshops track Stanley mentioned during the show.
And there's one more CoinDesk Live before the big event. Later today, long-time crypto reporter Bailey Reutzel will be speaking with Felipe Duarte, who created a worksheet to help entrepreneurs build DAOs. It's just like you're in school again, but this time it's fun! Go ahead and register for that talk, starting at 4 p.m. ET, here.
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