Published in TgradeFinance·Mar 14DeFi 2.0. Is it different this time? Did we solve the issues?The summer of DeFi was a blast and hard to keep up with the pace of innovation and experimentation. Taking a step back to the spring of 2021 when I wrote a blog asking the question whether regulatory compliance and crypto were fundamentally compatible? This was the deep question that…Defi7 min readDefi7 min read
Published in TgradeFinance·Mar 1Tgrade February newsFebruary has been a lively month in the US with many announcements and commentary on the regulatory front. There is an imperative to “do something” in light of what is emerging around how FTX was managed, especially around the theme of custody of client assets. The case around qualified custodians…Blockchain2 min readBlockchain2 min read
Published in TgradeFinance·Feb 17Qualified Custodians, a sledge hammer to crack a nut?The need to “do something” was clear after the FTX debacle, and the response has been swift from the SEC around the need for qualified custodians to cover crypto as they do in traditional finance. I wrote a blog on Smart Contract Counterparty and Custody Risk in April 2022, prompted…SEC4 min readSEC4 min read
Published in TgradeFinance·Feb 15Proof of Stake and regulatory uncertaintyI wrote a post in September 2022 about the regulatory uncertainty in the US around Proof of Stake and whether Proof of Stake tokens could be considered securities. The argument that staking tokens were securities centered around Common Enterprise in the context of delegated Proof of Stake, Liquid Staking and…Proof Of Stake5 min readProof Of Stake5 min read
Published in TgradeFinance·Feb 1Tgrade January news2023 has begun with the publication from the Oversight Community of the participant criteria. When the Oversight Community was formed during the early testnets (pre-launch) the criteria was left open and it was the intent that the self-sovereign group determine what the criteria for participation should be. After six months…Tgradefinance3 min readTgradefinance3 min read
Published in TgradeFinance·Jan 19Oversight Community participant criteriaWhen the Oversight Community was first established it was a voyage of discovery. In the decentralised world it would be hard to justify a rigid set of rules about who can take part set by one of the founders, it needed to be a consensual process in the spirit of…Governance3 min readGovernance3 min read
Published in TgradeFinance·Dec 29, 20222022: A year in reviewTerraForm collapse, and the contagion that saw the demise of Three Arrows Capital, Celsius, and the implosion of the sprawling FTX and Alameda conglomerate run by the disgraced Sam Bankman-Fried. The fall of the price of Bitcoin from the heady price of $60,000 to $16,000, and the exodus of retail…20228 min read20228 min read
Published in TgradeFinance·Dec 14, 2022Engagement Point CategoriesBetween the launch of Tgrade in June and the beginning of December the Oversight Community has received 154 applications for Engagement Points of these 119 were submitted and passed, the remainder were either duplicates, had insufficient information or did not demonstrate engagement. Now there is some good data, it becomes…Proof Of Engagement2 min readProof Of Engagement2 min read
Published in TgradeFinance·Nov 29, 2022Green Finance revisitedIn December 2020 I wrote about multiple-dimension, programmable instruments in which I proposed using smart contracts to add further dimensions to the traditional corporate bond and account for the Social and Environmental impacts as well as demonstrating good governance. I gave an example of a car manufacturer issuing a bond…Green Finance5 min readGreen Finance5 min read
Published in TgradeFinance·Nov 28, 2022Appropriate transparency vs privacy?The recent news about the detention of Alexey Pertsev in the Netherlands for his role in the sanctioned Tornado Cash protocol raises many issues about privacy on public blockchains. The court hearing in ‘s-Hertogenbosch on 22nd November argued that he had more of a role than a software engineer who…Tornadocash5 min readTornadocash5 min read
