On 15 July 2020, 45 high-profile Twitter users simultaneously posted a dubious tweet about a bitcoin scheme that was too good to be true. Users like Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett claimed that, for 30 minutes only, all bitcoin sent to a specific cryptocurrency wallet would be doubled as part of an elaborate charity drive. Within minutes, 320 bitcoin transactions were made, totalling up to more than US$110,000 in value.

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The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is entrusted with the responsibility of preserving and enhancing competition, not just through enforcement, but also through advocacy. Section 49 of the Competition Act, 2002 states that CCI “shall take suitable measures for the promotion of competition advocacy, creating awareness and imparting training about competition issues”.

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Why are we issuing this Consultation Paper?
This Consultation Paper (CP) seeks public comment on our proposals for regulating Security Tokens. These proposals are designed to provide a regulatory regime for activities relating to Investments that:

a)are a digital representation of rights and obligations, created, stored and capable of being transferred electronically – using distributed ledger technology (DLT) or similar technology; and (more…)

Embracing new technologies that could enable drastic reductions in GHG emissions will be key to delivering low-emissions pathways for growth, but it is not always obvious what the big breakthroughs will look like. This report looks at how blockchain technology can be applied to support sustainable infrastructure investment that is aligned with climate change objectives.

It focuses on three key points: the financing of infrastructure initiatives, the creation of visibility and alignment of climate action, and the provisioning of awareness and access for institutions and consumers. Blockchain technology can address these challenges by creating new ways of raising capital, providing transparency through an immutable record of transactions, and establishing new inclusive market mechanisms.

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A surge of interest in decentralised finance is leading the market to question whether this is a bubble ready to burst, or whether it can overcome its growing pains to become a sustainable alternative to services offered by traditional centralised finance.
The proponents of decentralised finance will argue that it casts the net wide to individuals and institutions who can access financial applications, that perhaps couldn’t before. And without the need for a trusted intermediary inside a permissionless ecosystem.

The detractors will claim that the financial services sector has already invested $1.7bn in blockchain (according to Greenwich Associates). And yet beyond the volatile world of bitcoin, it has had very little impact. Furthermore, regulation is desperately required and there are low levels of liquidity resulting in low uti-lisation amongst established enterprises.

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