By Gareth Vaughan
There's no silver bullet law that parliament could pass to oversee all the good and bad aspects of the crypto and blockchain industry, according to an adviser to the parliamentary select committee running a cryptocurrency inquiry.
Speaking in the latest episode of interest.co.nz's Of Interest Podcast, MinterEllisonRuddWatts partner Jeremy Muir discusses a wide range of crypto-asset related issues.
A leading lawyer for cryptocurrencies, digital tokens and coins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other blockchain projects, Muir is one of two special advisors to the finance and expenditure committee for its crypto inquiry.
Muir is currently working on a report for the committee.
"We will certainly be counselling as part of our report that there isn't a single easy fix, there isn't a single crypto act which will make all of the scams and problems go away whilst also encouraging innovation in the industry," Muir says.
In the podcast Muir discusses a range of other issues including the New Zealand blockchain-related technology scene, the Financial Markets Authority's attitude to the industry, NZ regulatory gaps, overseas regulations, stablecoins, and the "battle brewing over the future of money."
5 Comments
Don't want to be dismissive and must listen to the podcast first, but a partner at a law firm would need to be spending most of his waking hours to comprehensively understand the various developments and issues surrounding crypto and digital assets. Some lawyers in the U.S. are knees deep in this stuff. For ex, John Deaton who is closely connected to the Ripple vs SEC court battle.
Post listen: Great questions and discussion. Jeremy highlights some of the crucial issues re enforcement vs guidance as demonstrated by the SEC. And it seems that NZ may be better positioned in terms of how the law actually defines securities as they relate to digital assets.
Gareth, re RBNZ ongoing review on overseas banks acting as 'branches' (eg Rabobank). Are the Chinese banks ie Bank of China and ICBC subject to this review as 'branches' or are they fully fleged 'subsiduaries' that will be allowed to keep their 'retail' customers?
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