What is it about?

It is a review of a recently published book, Crypto Currencies and the Regulatory Challenge by Professor Allen Hutchinson. Right now, regulators are turning their attention to the crypto world.

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Why is it important?

The losses so many have suffered from their investments in cryptocurrencies during 2022 make investor protection a much more pressing and serious issue.

Perspectives

I argue that Hutchinson's approach is far too narrow, in that he defines cryptocurrencies entirely in terms of Bitcoins, whereas this cannot function as a currency. It is far too volatile, takes too long for transactions to be recorded on the blockchain by the miners. Stable coins, pegged to a fiat currency, or some other commodity or pegged, for example, by an algorithm. But the issuing companies are not transparent about their reserves and other matters. His solution to the problem of regulating cryptos would be solved by the establishment of a Crypto Services Agency, bringing together all those involved in democratic fashion. But crypto currencies are simply taking other people's money and using it in various ways, not essentially different from traditional finances, so they should be governed by the same rules, on the principle, 'same risk, same activity, same treatment'. Hutchinson never explains why crypto currencies should escape this principle.

Oonagh McDonald

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Cryptocurrencies and the Regulatory Challenge , ALLAN C.HUTCHINSON, London: Routledge, 2021, 156 pp., £120.00, Journal of Law and Society, August 2022, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/jols.12383.
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