On Monday, crypto-related news was abuzz with the announcement that US investigators managed to recover millions in cryptocurrency they say was paid in ransom to hackers whose attack led to the shutdown of an East Coast pipeline last month.
Responding to the news, former Managing Partner and current consultant at Ganado Advocates, Max Ganado, who is also a leading legal mind behind Malta’s blockchain and crypto laws, says that this story is one which shows the difference between the challenge of cash and anonymity in criminality, and that relating to cryptocurrencies.
“Crypto-assets of any kind are built-in technology platforms and can be traced and tracked – unlike cash,” Dr Ganado said in comments on LinkedIn.
“That should give us all hope for the future in our fight against criminality. That’s why major players should get involved in innovative technology so that effective regtech [regulatory technology] can be developed as fast as criminal tech…and to stand a chance in this battle this is the only way to fight it.
“Humans just cannot cope with the opacity of technology and the massive volume of data. We need equally powerful tools”.
A strong supporter of the use of ‘RegTech’ as a means to reign criminal behaviour in the blockchain and crypto space, Dr Ganado has over 30 years of experience as a lawyer and has been an external lecturer at the University of Malta since 1985.
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