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The success of Blockchain does not depend on the regulations – Shone Anstey
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Shone Anstey serves as executive chairman, president and co-founder of BIG Blockchain Intelligence Group Inc., responsible for creating the company's core products, QLUE and BitRank.
He has been hired with cryptocurrency since 2012 and acted as technology leader for a bitcoin industrial mining operation.
In the fourth quarter of 2014, together with Marty Anstey, he founded the concepts and the core of the technology that is now Blockchain Intelligence Group.
He submitted a question and answer to the Block Tribune on current industry issues.
How can we bring cryptocurrencies to the levels of security and usability that people expect from a modern currency?
The new generation of wallets is the showcase for cryptocurrencies. And so they determine the verdict of the people on security and on the usability of cryptocurrencies. To obtain a cryptographic portfolio to provide the level of protection and usability that people are used to obtaining from fiat currency, robust private key management, an error-free, trust-free transaction process and a user interface friendly are the main requirements. Therefore, desktop portfolios like Jaxx, Atomic and Exodus seem to have a good combination of security and usability. The development of atomic swaps can bring the secure transaction environment of a decentralized exchange to the type of wallet that is simple to use for people.
How can we tackle the challenges associated with virtual currencies such as money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion and fraud?
We can meet these challenges by acting individually in the common interest of the virtual currency space and cooperating with regulatory authorities. Individuals within the Eco space have called offenders who perform fraudulent services. Intelligence companies like us at the Blockchain Intelligence Group are building strong relationships with order forces, banks and regulators. The learning process is mutual.
We were preparing for the worst during the speculative boom of last year, as we anticipated an increase in embezzlement in the blockchain space. Regarding specific financial crimes such as money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion and fraud, we have not seen high cases because criminals are actually very conservative … they stick to what works. They prefer totally anonymous and totally fungible currencies … two qualities that bitcoin does not have.
Having said this, we should add the redemption as a challenge that we must face as it goes hand in hand with blackmail and terrorism. On December 13th in Edmonton, Canada, a member of a gang who had attacked a branch of Scotiabank required a ransom called in bitcoin. This is an area where partnerships with the ordering forces are essential.
What new financial laws and regulations can we expect in the next year?
The laws and regulations we can expect for 2019 will probably be the further developments on the reforms made this year.
For the United States, federal and state laws will evolve to accommodate cryptocurrencies between their current virtual currency decisions in general. However, some states define cryptocurrency as money in order to make them compliant with their money transmission laws. Meanwhile, at the federal level, the SEC continues to push for cryptocurrencies to be defined as securities so that they can treat ICOs and now STOs using the same channels they apply for their regulation of the financial markets as a whole.
The New York State Department of Financial Services has gone so far as to require cryptocurrency traders to purchase a license called BitLicense to handle an exchange or portfolio service. The license also requires them to send KYC / AML information to their customers. We are not sure how much the traction licenses will have in 2019 as consumption has been low and some wallets and portfolio services have preferred to exclude US customers so as not to be involved in US regulations.
This inconsistency between national and local threatens to fuel continued inconsistencies on how to define cryptocurrency in 2019. However, it can also create the impetus for regional regulation similar to the Asian countries that have designed their rules to balance protection for consumers with a light hand that allows innovation to thrive.
Does the success or failure of the blockchain depend on regulation?
Not at all. Success or failure lies in the reactivity of the blockchain community to act in the interest of its users. This can involve driving regulators and it is true that some regulatory decisions can affect the relationships between service providers and their users: the BitLicense problem is one of these examples. But it reduces to the user's experience of being served properly and feeling safe in a world that is still very new and still under attack by hackers and scammers.
Will the energy-efficient mines win?
The most energy-efficient operations have won this year. An interesting result of the decline of the fiat values of cryptocurrencies for the whole of 2018 is that it has had a much greater impact on the large mining structures that have gone too far in order to be expensive. They bought large facilities in remote locations that proved to be too expensive to manage.
Conversely, the smaller mines that had pooled their resources or adapted their existing plant had less environmental impact and are still in operation. Mining operations are attracted to efficient conditions every time they decide to locate their plants: low energy costs, a favorable climate, a stable political environment. The smaller mines have been successfully assimilated with the places they have adopted and therefore have had less impact on the natural environment.
Calculations on how much it costs mine 1 BTC remains problematic, however. The variables are too different in the mining ecosystem due to different hardware, different mining settings, etc. And many mines do not reveal details about their energy consumption. If the Paris Climate Change Agreement can establish specific hardware for the extraction of cryptocurrencies and require miners to declare their expenses, we could obtain more robust bases to calculate the impact of cryptocurrency on climate change. . But, until then, demand will continue to be mired in presumptive estimates.
