Riding The Wave News Summary 185
Chase U.K. to Block Crypto Payments Citing Fraud, Scams, ‘Alarm Bells For Crypto’—Leak Reveals Joe Biden Could Be About To Issue a Game-Changing Executive Order And Trigger Bitcoin Price Chaos, & more
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Chase U.K. to Block Crypto Payments Citing Fraud, Scams
Banking giant Chase is banning crypto-linked payments via debit card or by outgoing bank transfer for U.K. clients starting Oct. 16, according to an email to customers.
"If we think you're making a payment related to crypto assets, we'll decline it," the email said, adding that customers are free to use a different bank or provider to invest in crypto.
However, finding a crypto-friendly bank in the country may not be the easiest thing, as U.K. credit institutions have a history of blocking or limiting customer access to crypto. The local financial watchdog – the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – recently said it had facilitated discussions between banks and crypto firms because lenders have shown a reluctance to offer services to that industry.
In the email, reviewed by CoinDesk, Chase said it was banning crypto payments because “fraudsters are increasingly using crypto assets to steal large sums of money from people” – a reason cited by other U.K. banks that have previously imposed similar limitations.
‘Alarm Bells For Crypto’—Leak Reveals Joe Biden Could Be About To Issue a Game-Changing Executive Order And Trigger Bitcoin Price Chaos
Now, a leak has revealed U.S. president Joe Biden could be about to issue an executive order on artificial intelligence that could have a serious spillover to bitcoin and crypto, setting "alarm bells" ringing.
"The upcoming White House executive order on AI raises some alarm bells for crypto," Alexander Grieve, head of government affairs at bitcoin and crypto-focused investment company Paradigm, posted to X (Twitter), linking to a Semafor report that cites anonymous sources.
The report claims companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon would be forced to disclose "when a customer purchases computing resources beyond a certain threshold."
Grieve points to a part of the report that refers to computing power as a "national resource" and that "mining bitcoin, developing video games, and running AI models like ChatGPT" all require "large amounts of compute."
The bitcoin network, which requires so-called miners to validate transactions in return for freshly-created bitcoin using high-powered computers, is thought to use more electricity annually than some small countries. Following China's 2021 bitcoin mining ban, the U.S. has become home to more bitcoin miners than any other country.
"Currently, the White House views tech jobs and dev talent and energy as scarce national resources and therefore zero sum—particularly [with respect to] crypto," Grieve said, speculating that bitcoin mining could be considered "robbing families of power" and working in crypto would take development talent "away from 'real' applications."
"If we start viewing compute capacity in a similar way, and reporting on who is using how much of it, expect similar political and media pressure to be targeted at cloud service providers that service large crypto industry players," Grieve added, calling it "Operation Choke Point, but for computing power."
Gensler testimony — Crypto enforcement actions driven by “wide-ranging noncompliance”
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