Writing for Coindesk, Emfarsis Director Leah Callon-Butler shared her insights regarding the need to have a standard messaging in the cryptocurrency industry to comply with the Travel Rule, which is a recommendation from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). You can read the full article here: Crypto Exchanges Need Common Messaging to Comply with Travel Rule
Leah notes that many technology in the world seamlessly work because of standards. Examples include withdrawing cash from an ATM that is not that of your bank’s, paying for products and services through a QR code, etc.
“You don’t give a second thought to any of that stuff, because of standards.”
With the FATF stating that the cryptocurrency industry is within its scope, it meant following its recommendations against anti-money laundering and terrorism financing. It meant following the playbook that financial institutions have been following for decades.
A key standard that the industry was trying to mimic is SWIFT, worldwide network that enables banks and financial institutions to send and receive information about money transfers, and one that is considered as the gold standard for reliable and secure financial messaging.
For Alexandre Kech, a former SWIFT guy who is now the CEO of OnChain Custodian, which provides cryptocurrency custody solutions, global standards should be flexible enough to be implemented at a local level and still respect nuance. To which Leah agreed, “We need to create something more versatile than that of our financial ancestry, but the way we are building – too often in silos – is putting the ecosystem in danger of ending up fragmented, western-centric and still struggling with interoperability.”
You can read the full article here:
Crypto Exchanges Need Common Messaging to Comply with Travel Rule
Published: Coindesk by: Leah Callon-Butler (February 25, 2020)