Canadian Senate’s Committee recommends regulatory “light touch” on Bitcoin, and mining pool BTC Guild is shutting down. Here are the cryptocurrency highlights of week 25.
- The Canadian Senate’s Committee, Trade and Commerce (BTC) has released a report in which it recommends the federal government a “regulatory light touch” on Bitcoin and digital currencies. The report states: “The federal government [should], in considering any legislation, regulation and policies, create an environment that fosters innovation for digital currencies and their associated technologies. As such, the government should exercise a regulatory “light touch” that minimizes actions that might stifle the development of these new technologies.” The conclusions were well received by the Bitcoin community, and provide Canada an opportunity to be a world leader in financial technological innovation.
- Bitcoin mining pool BTC Guild will shut down by the end of this month due to the finalization of the BitLicense regulation by the state of New York. The pool had already shrunk significantly resulting in falling revenue, leaving it unable to deal with the potential legal liability from the new regulatory framework. As stated in the announcement: “the cost of defending the pool would be greater than any income the pool is expected to generate going forward.”
- A new report by Santander Innoventures suggests that “distributed ledger technology could reduce banks’ infrastructure costs attributable to cross-border payments, securities trading and regulatory compliance by between $15-20 billion per annum by 2022.” The report is claimed to list 20 to 25 possible applications for the blockchain technology, including international money transfers and collateral management.
- The European Banking Authority (EBA) still sees the risk of a 51 percent attack on the Bitcoin network as one of the digital currency’s foremost concerns. Dirk Haubrich, EBA’s head of consumer protection and financial innovation, made these comments on a cryptocurrency event at the University of Birmingham, and also appeared skeptical on the assumption that a majority would be unlikely to abuse the system stating: “I don’t believe in those promises any more.”
- The price of Bitcoin experienced a strong week gaining more than $12, or five percent per coin. The gain is widely believed to be caused by the events unfolding surrounding Greece and its potential departure from the European Union. The exchange rate for a single coin is now at about $242.
