This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first web page on the World Wide Web, which means a person has to be nearly half a century old to clearly remember the patchwork progress, the false starts and stops, and the trial and error that eventually gave us what is now the defining foundation of 21st-century life. We take the internet for granted in 2021, but it took us decades to get to this point. Throughout the years, the barriers toward adoption tumbled away, and there were clear signs that this new technology would fundamentally change the way the world …

Cryptocurrency businesses in the United Kingdom have been struggling to meet Anti-Money Laundering standards set by the Financial Conduct Authority, according to a senior official. John Glen, a member of U.K. Parliament and the economic secretary to the Treasury, pointed out major difficulties in the process of registering crypto firms under the FCA’s AML regulations in official comments on Friday. According to the official, only five crypto businesses have received registration from the FCA as of May 24 after the authority became the official AML supervisor of the crypto industry in the U.K. in January 2020. “Of the firms assessed …

Over the past year or so, the crypto community in South Korea has had to adapt to a suite of new regulations and government frameworks tailored to the growing industry. With the regulatory landscape for digital assets thus undergoing a marked shift, there has nonetheless been some confusion as to which Korean government agency or regulatory authority is tasked with overseeing various aspects of crypto-related activities. According to a local report, a joint statement released on Friday aims to clarify these questions for a society of undeniable crypto enthusiasts. The statement outlines that the Financial Services Commission, or FSC, will …

At a 279th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee in Abuja, Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele expressed confidence that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) will be legal in the country, Business Insider reported on Wednesday. Emefiele did not directly mention a decision to reverse the CBN’s February ban of institutions from buying and selling crypto but noted that the bank has been investigating the industry: “We are committed in the CBN, and I can assure everybody that digital currency will come to life even in Nigeria [...] Under cryptocurrency and Bitcoin, Nigeria comes 2nd, while on the global side …

Blockchain’s potential to sustain a distributed, tamper-proof infrastructure for collective digital memory has taken on an unexpected political salience for citizens in Hong Kong. Soon after Hong Kong’s public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong, or RTHK, revealed its intent to erase any archived content older than one year, residents hurried to save a trove of past news footage that had until now been freely available to the public. The reason for their haste was the recognition that RTHK’s archive contains critical coverage of the recent years of anti-authoritarian struggles and protests that were initially sparked by the introduction of the …

Canadian securities regulators have initiated a regulatory action against major global cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex. On Tuesday, the Ontario Securities Commission published a statement of allegations against Polo Digital Assets, also known as Poloniex, alleging that the firm has failed to comply with Ontario securities laws. According to the statement, Poloniex has never been registered with the agency, while encouraging Canadians to use its platform and allowing Ontario residents to trade crypto derivatives and securities. “Poloniex has never filed a prospectus with the Commission or obtained an exemption from the prospectus requirement,” the OSC wrote. As Poloniex is incorporated in the …

The recent crackdown on Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto mining in Iran has reached a new dimension, with the government banning the activity over the summer. According to a report by Bloomberg, President Hassan Rouhani announced the blanket ban on Bitcoin mining in the country in an address on state television on Wednesday. The nationwide prohibition will reportedly last until September, with the government keen on ensuring access to electricity for domestic consumption during the hot summer months, which are historically peak periods for power demand. As part of his address, President Rouhani alleged that the majority of the crypto mining …

United States cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has tapped Faryar Shirzad to fill the role of chief policy officer at the firm, signaling its continued commitment to meeting the evolving regulatory landscape governing digital assets. In joining Coinbase, Shirzad left a 15-year position as global co-head of the office of government affairs at Goldman Sachs, where he “played a leading role in managing the firm’s government relations and public policy strategy,” the exchange said in a Monday blog post. In describing the role of the new chief policy officer, Coinabse said: “[...] Faryar will engage with lawmakers, regulators and other policy experts …

Uganda’s Financial Intelligence Authority wants the government to come up with clear-cut crypto regulations. According to a report by Ugandan media outlet Daily Monitor on Monday, the FIA has asked the country’s finance ministry to develop a legal framework for cryptocurrency regulations in Uganda. Sydney Asubo, executive director of the FIA, made the call during a meeting with stakeholders over the weekend. According to Asubo, the need for crypto regulations in Uganda has become of paramount importance given the noncompliance of industry participants to the agency’s licensing requirements. Indeed, the FIA amended the country’s Anti-Money Laundering laws to include crypto …

Russian lawmakers are reportedly weighing a partial reversal of the country’s ban on cryptocurrency payments. Pavel Krasheninnikov, chairman of the Russian Duma’s Committee on State Building and Legislation, announced that the government is considering amending civil law to allow crypto payments as a “contractual medium.” According to Interfax on Monday, Krasheninnikov noted that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) do not currently represent a legal payment method in Russia, which means that merchants are not required to accept it. The planned amendments would allow crypto payments in Russia under contractual law — meaning that such payments would be only possible with the …

South Korea’s central bank is moving forward with its national digital currency plans as it now looks for a technology supplier to design a pilot platform for the digital won. The Bank of Korea announced that it launched a bidding process to choose a tech partner for studying the practicalities of launching a central bank digital currency in a test environment, Reuters reported Monday. The BoK said that the latest move comes in response to fast changes in the global financial system, stating, “The share of cash transactions is decreasing significantly. The steps we are taking now are to prepare …

Individuals have different choices when it comes to storing their cryptocurrencies. They can use a hosted wallet (sometimes called a custodial wallet), which involves an intermediary (a host) that usually receives, stores and transmits the assets on behalf of their clients. For example, a centralized crypto exchange can be a hosted wallet provider, with which an individual sets up an account/wallet. In such cases, the value stored belongs to the account holder, but the funds are controlled by the wallet provider/host (pursuant to the contractual arrangement and instructions from the client). Alternatively, cryptocurrencies can be stored in an unhosted wallet …