The Technology Advisory Committee of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) discussed crypto regulation and distributed ledger technology (DLT) adoption during a meeting on Wednesday, March 27. The committee discussed various reports on cryptocurrencies and DLT. The first was presented by Peter Van Valkenburgh, Director of Research at Coin Center, who spoke on various consensus mechanisms. Referring to this topic, CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz said in his opening statement that Ethereum’s plan to shift from a proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus raises important regulatory questions, including the possibility of manipulating or falsifying the ledger. Another report was …

United States regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that it is hosting a public forum on distributed ledger technology (DLT) and digital assets this May. The news was revealed in an SEC press release today, March 15. The commission’s Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (Finhub) has organized the event — dubbed the Fintech Forum — which will take place on May 31, 2019. The press release reports that the forum will include industry experts as panelists and is “designed to foster greater communication and understanding around issues involving DLT and digital assets.” According to the …

The Association of German Private Banks (Bankenverband) foresees that a need for new regulation may arise from the emergence of distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based securities. The association expressed its concerns in a post on its official website on March 11, Cointelegraph auf Deutsche reported. Per the post, if securities are issued using new technologies, then there is a need for new safekeeping and settlements processes. According to Bankenverband, corporate actions and securities trading may also be subject to change because of DLT-based securities. The statement further explains that because of the changes that new technologies will create in business processes, …

German financial services company Commerzbank and securities marketplace Deutsche Boerse have completed a proof-of-concept (PoC) for a legally binding repo transaction using distributed ledger technology (DLT). The news was reported by Cointelegraph auf Deutsch on March 6. A repo transaction is commonly used for short-term borrowing, and allows dealers to sell securities to investors — often for as short a time as overnight — and repurchase them the following day, or as otherwise determined. For the party selling the security, the process is termed a repo, whereas for the counterparty, it is known as a reverse repurchase agreement. For the …