UK Exchange Launches with Backing From Regulated E-Money Firm

By Joon Ian Wong

The team behind a regulated e-money issuer has launched a bitcoin exchange called Digital Securities Exchange (DSX).

The issuer, ePayments Systems Ltd, has been an authorised electronic money institution with the UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, since last July. ePayments Systems has in turn made DSX its agent.

The move is meant to position DSX to capture the market for sterling-bitcoin trading, said Mike Rymanov, who founded and leads both ventures.

Rymanov said:

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Bitcoin Predictions for 2015

By Carlos Maslaton
In our blog post 10 Reasons Why Bitcoin is the Future, Xapo’s Chief Strategy Officer Ted Rogers wrote that “it will take years for bitcoin to achieve its status as a global unit of account but, as it spreads across borders and becomes a de facto global currency, it will transition naturally into the standard unit for measuring value.”

That’s the long-term view of bitcoin’s future. But what about the short-term? What role will 2015 play in bitcoin’s trajectory toward becoming a “de facto global currency”? Here are some of my 2015 bitcoin predictions.

Tipping and remittances will continue to increase

One interesting thing to watch in 2015 will be the total number of bitcoin transactions on any given day. I expect this number to continue heading skyward, driven in part by microtransactions, tipping and remittances. Take a look at the chart below (from blockchain.info), which shows the total number of bitcoin transactions throughout 2014, and you’ll see what I mean.

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Evolution, Not Revolution: How to Sell Bitcoin to Regulators

By Amor Sexton (@amorsexton)

Amor Sexton is a consultant and lawyer at Adroit Lawyers, Australia's first specialist digital currency legal practice. She advises digital currency businesses and has worked with bitcoin industry bodies to clarify the regulatory framework in Australia. 

In a recent article, Jon Matonis stated that "bitcoin requires forceful and aggressive legal defense, not complicity with governments in crafting policy and regulations".

The current global political climate has resulted in the development of laws that are increasingly pervasive and intrusive on the rights of private individuals. In many countries, forceful and aggressive legal advocacy is necessary to protect civil rights and civil liberties against draconian laws.

However, the bitcoin community is not fighting a battle against law enforcement. Bitcoin is not a revolution against government. It is an evolution of the way we transfer value, an evolution of the concept of money, and an evolution from centralised opacity to decentralised transparency.

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