The Crypto 5

Greetings,

Zombies! Cars escorted down streets! And the UK claims second is the new first!

Welcome to the Crypto 5 - your weekly roundup of the hottest stories to thaw crypto winter. Don't forget, share this newsletter?as an early Valentine's day present! I've heard sharing is caring.

1. The UK's "second mover" advantage (The Block)

The UK maybe following in the footsteps of the EU, but perhaps a second-mover advantage is best?

Last year Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced ambitious plans for the UK to be a crypto hub. Now, the country is proposing new rules for crypto lending and claiming to be the first in the G20 to do so.

Why does it matter?

• The UK is taking the lessons learned from MiCA and developing regulation for new areas.
• The UK wants "clear, effective, timely regulation and proactive engagement with industry" something that the crypto industry has been clamoring for the US government to say because clear rules of the road help businesses grow and protect consumers.
• It's a part of the UK's digital economy, with a study estimating that 10% of the population hold crypto.

Check out all the details and breakdown in Inbar Preiss and Benjamin Robertson 's article in The Block.

Are you British? Do you hold crypto? Let me know in the comments below.

2. When cars were escorted down streets in the US and UK (CCI)

At the beginning, cars were shocking. How shocking you may ask?

In the UK and in some US states, red flag rules required someone to walk with a red flag in front of moving vehicle to warn the public.

To quote a New York City traffic court judge in 1923: "Nobody has any inherent right to run an automobile at all."

Laughable? Well it's historical and Linda Jeng thinks crypto may be no different. The automobile industry and its consumers made their case and the transportation revolution was made safe through improvements in technology and regulation she says in her article.

Jeng continues:

• We are at a similar crossroads today with the transformation of money and assets, and their overall implications for the financial services sector and society at large.
• The rise of the internet and advances in modern computing power have led to the creation of blockchain and other types of distributed ledger technologies. They have also led to the unbundling of financial services and fintech firms finding innovative ways to disintermediate, providing services and tokenizing assets along the financial services stacks.?
• Make no mistake, this is a revolution.

Are cars and crypto similar? Let me know in the comments.

3. Finland finishes first? (Cointelegraph)

In what could be a first for the EU - a company called Membrane Finance released what they are claiming is a MiCA-compliant stablecoin (MiCA is the EU's landmark crypto regulation due for final approval in April. Once passed it will be the first time a major economy legislates stablecoins and the wider ecosystem).

It's worth remembering that there are 4 primary types of stablecoins. Broadly speaking, the most popular are ones backed 1:1 and tied to the value of a fiat currency, like the euro. Stablecoins give us the opportunity to instantly settle cross-border payments and this has been particularly helpful in a few cases.

But a word of caution - not all stablecoins are designed equally - they have different characteristics and functions. Oh, and there are over 200 of them - Dive more into stablecoins here.

4. Privacy has become a "zombie" (FT)

In 1988, Professor Shoshana Zuboff predicted that computers would change businesses in a way unlike another.

This week, she sat down with the FT's Henry Mance to talk data theft, privacy and zombies...sort of.

Some of the lines that cut through:

• "Zuboff cites data that, in the US, which has no federal privacy law, people have their location exposed 747 times a day. In the EU, which she says has the “best regulation”, it’s 376."
• “This is a world in which privacy has been extinguished. Privacy is now a zombie category. None of us have privacy, even as we thought about it in the year 2000.”
• Tech companies “are becoming much more reluctant to patent their discoveries, because they don’t want the public to know exactly what they’re doing. They’re no longer in most cases making their own data available to researchers.”

How does this relate to crypto?

It made me think of some recent discussions with colleagues on zero-knowledge proofs.

Through this new technology, you could prove to a bouncer that you are over 21 without giving away your home address, your actual birthday and if you are an organ donor. In short, zero-knowledge proofs enable you to prove a piece of information without revealing the information. It's one of the most exciting advances out there in my opinion.

5. NFT Drivers Licenses? (Fortune)

I know we all love waiting in lines, but hear me out.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles is in the final stages of a project with Tezos to track ownership of cars.

Jeff John Roberts says "in practice, this means California drivers will soon be able to hold their car titles as NFTs in their digital wallets and the DMV will be streamlining the cumbersome process of title transfers."

This could lead to a "breakthrough in the field of digital identity."

It will require some testing, but the state that houses Silicon Valley may yet again lead the US in transformative tech.

Last year, Governor Newsom announced that birth and marriage certificates could be legally delivered on the blockchain. No more 10-day waiting periods - just instant PDFs.

Before you go

This Crypto 5 writer is thinking it might be time for a puppy. But, I need your help with a name.

Front runners (the puppy is a boy and I have not made it official):

• Charcuterie
• Potato
• Andre
• Josh

Have your say in the comments.

All the best for a bon weekend - Thank you for getting to the bottom of this newsletter!