Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Bitcoin

Global Crypto Regulation Body Likely in Next Year, Top Official Says (reuters.com) 28

Global market regulators are likely to launch a joint body within the next year to better co-ordinate cryptocurrency rules, a senior watchdog official has said. From a report: Ashley Alder, chair of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) said the boom in digital currencies such as bitcoin was one of the three main areas authorities were now focused on, alongside COVID and climate change. "If you look at the risks we need to address, they are multiple and there is a wall of worry about this (crypto) in the conversations at an institutional level," Alder said during an online conference organised by the OMFIF thinktank on Thursday. He cited cyber security, operational resilience, and a lack of transparency in the crypto world as the key risks that regulators are lagging behind on. Focus on crypto markets has intensified again this week amid more wild volatility that has long-alarmed watchdogs.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Global Crypto Regulation Body Likely in Next Year, Top Official Says

Comments Filter:
  • Too late (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Train0987 ( 1059246 )

    Might've made a difference 5 years ago. Or they could've just enforced existing regulations ya know. Fraud was already illegal for one. Undisclosed paid promotions by influencers and celebrities, also already illegal. Etc, etc.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Look if you're not wash trading to pump up your own new coin, then you're doing investors a disservice.

    • by jwhyche ( 6192 )

      What the hell are they going to try to regulate? Those that use crypto to get around government regulations are just going to ignore them. Which is the purpose of crypto anyway.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Today there was a story about Coinbase saying that if they went bust then everyone who lets them hold their crypto currency could lose it. So an obvious place to start would be creating rules for crypto exchanges that require them to join a security pool, much like banks, to protect depositors.

        • by jwhyche ( 6192 )

          That right there sounds like a key reason not to use a exchange. Which is what I expect people that use crypto to get around regulation wouldn't to, use an exchange that is.

          But I suppose that not using an exchange would be the equivalent of burying your cash in the back yard. Pretty secure if nobody knows where it is but really inconvenient to use.

          • But I suppose that not using an exchange would be the equivalent of burying your cash in the back yard. Pretty secure if nobody knows where it is but really inconvenient to use.

            For crypto currencies to ever be stable enough to genuinely be "money" to non-speculators, there will need be many trusted exchanges spread across the financial world to provide liquidity and stability at reasonable cost.

            As an individual, one is welcome to choose to bury coin in the backyard. But as a financial ecosystem, the "how" to make trustworthy crypto exchanges is unsolved, apparently.

            • by jwhyche ( 6192 )

              There in lies another problem, trust worthy exchanges. Currently, one of the best ways to get rich is to start an exchange, then at some point disappear into the night with the loot.

              • The "overworked small team had overlooked security holes in our implementation, oops, 90% of the money is gone, sorry" gambit has been played several times, at this point.

                For all that there are many legitimate concerns about the how the modern regular financial system works, the crypto financial world has a track record that is very bad by the already low standards of the 18th century. I honestly think they have quite a ways to go to achieve a 19th century kind of bad. The fact that only the most extreme

        • require them to join a security pool, much like banks, to protect depositors

          LOL, you know how this works in this bizarro world, at least in Europe? Banks need to deposit some fraction of their deposits in order to guarantee this fund. And for whatever reason since quite a while the interest is NEGATIVE. Yes, for your protection some of your money would disappear. Now most banks are passing these to the customer so they'll be charging them interest to keep the money in the bank. Most have some threshold from

  • by pr0t0 ( 216378 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @11:22AM (#62525878)

    I don't really have a horse in this race, but wasn't the point or driving ethos in the creation of crypto currencies, bitcoin in particular, was that it was unregulated?

    Hackers and technophiles: "Let's create our own separate financial system, free of government oversight and regulation!"
    Governments and financial institutions: "Thanks for the innovation. We'll take it from here."

    Or is this regulatory body simply creating rules for institutional engagement?

    • crypto uses enormous amounts of electricity. Even if we ignore the environmental concerns or the increase smog you're liable to end up breathing it still uses tons of electronics, driving up the price of every tech item you buy.

      Worse, crypto are "assets" with no actual value, even for entertainment, and they're valued in the trillions. There are loans and securities being created on the backs of these "assets", and it's starting to show up at Wall Street proper. If it keeps up it's liable to turn into a
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's Dunning-Kruger at work again. You have the mathematicians who think that financial systems are just a question of creating the right model currency. You have the software engineers who think the only security needed is a set of rules programmed into the blockchain. You have the investors who think they have found the future and are getting in early.

      That's why people keep losing all their money.

  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @11:23AM (#62525882)
    the floor of crypto currencies is set by money laundering, drug purchases and ponzi schemes. That hasn't changed.

    Without that floor there's no limit to speculator's losses. And unlike MLMs there's no product to speak of, so it'll be difficult to hide the ponzi schemes from regulators.

    What you're left with is a much less efficient form of banks that uses a ton of water, electricity and computer parts.

    It's not even decentralized. It didn't scale, resulting in transactions that can take minutes or hours to complete. The exchanges and mining pools formed to address that problem resulting in centralization. Worse "whales" have already shown the can fork chains like Tether and Ethereum, and if you don't follow the Whales when they fork the value of the old currency devalues so much you're screwed. Go look up what happened to "Ethereum Classic" sometime.

    Finally that centralization means you can and do see 51% attacks. A currency called Juno just did one, calling it a "community vote", to reverse a large scale theft. Hilariously they screwed up when they did it and lost the currency.

    Crypto is a failed experiment with nothing but downsides. It's tough to let go though because a) there's still a lot of money in it and b) it's so f'ing cyberpunk. We all want to imagine a world where 733t hxxrz hold the power instead of Old Money. Funny thing is, even in Shadowrun it didn't work that way. It was mega corps run by immortal dragons.
  • That'll hasten the end game and we finally stop talking about it excessively.

  • I’m sorry, but WTF is a global regulator? A variety of national regulators, I might buy, but ain’t nothing happening at a global scale

    • Just some group of globalists trying to feel like they're important. Shit, we can't even agree that there are 190 nations on the planet and they're promoting global financial regulation of something sold as DeFi. It'll fail miserably.

  • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @11:38AM (#62525938)

    Watching them drop like flies, do you really think there will be much left to regulate in a year?

  • by ebcdic ( 39948 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @11:58AM (#62526028)
    We need abolition.
  • Energy wasted. Wars fought for fuel, wasted. Pipelines on frozen tundra, wasted. Nuclear contamination, wasted. Offshore drilling, wasted. Human lives, wasted.
  • So, a "federal reserve" (or central bank if you will) scheme for global cryptocurrencies. The result being that the bankers and their allies in government get rich. Not surprised. Seems government's main objective is relentlessly expanding the influence and power of government.

  • Blockchain cryptocurrencies were designed specifically to be immune to the sort of regulation being discussed here. This will be about as successful as taxing the Internet has been.

If all else fails, lower your standards.

Working...