Digital Bytes August 2nd Edition with Jonny Fry / James Tylee featuring James Ramsden KC, and co-founder of Astraea Group

DeFi and privacy - balancing transparency and data protection - DeFi, which stands for decentralised finance, is growing fast and, according to Defillama, as of June 2023 it has a total locked value of $41.4 billion. DeFi offers a range of traditional financial services, such as interest-bearing accounts, loans, borrowing and prediction markets, in an alternative, decentralised way. For DeFi to garner greater institutional support it will likely be required to comply with AML/KYC checks, such checks on the face of it are an anathema to a decentralised way of doing business. Full Article Here Tokenised deposits - Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published paper in April 2023, the comparing stablecoins to the unstable era of privately issued bank notes before the creation of the United States Federal Reserve. The BIS highlighted the stability of tokenised deposits, arguing that tokenised deposits as a form of payment supported the ‘singleness’ of money, making it interchangeable in all forms. Financial markets and regulators need to balance the need for stability and keep the current status quo, versus embracing innovation which offers the allure of lower costs, less risk and faster payments. The dilemma is set to continue but it seems that, in some shape or form, digital currencies will become increasingly available and so offer an alternative way to make payments. Full Article Here NFTs: beyond art - non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have hugely impacted the art world. Even though some digital art collections are starting to gain traction in the mainstream art world, most NFTs are still a very obscure niche, and most mainstream media does not ‘get’ their cultural value. However, these digital certificates offer many possibilities in a wide variety of other industries, recording data that enables greater transparency and efficiency for a wide variety of use cases. Full Article Here The Law Commission’s “third category” welcomed but look to the future - as the Law Commission moves from consultation to detailed proposals on the legal treatment of digital assets, the focus switches to the lawmakers and regulators. Let us hope that political expediency does not take over and we see laws that reflect a typically well-informed, insightful and forward thinking proposal… Full Article Here