Finance
DeFi will survive efforts to make it a walled garden — Fold CEO
Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols will survive government and corporate efforts to impose traditional financial regulations designed to create a walled garden of permissioned digital systems, according to Will Reeves, CEO and co-founder of Bitcoin (BTC) rewards company Fold.
Reeves told Cointelegraph that regulatory proposals requiring DeFi protocols to embed biometric identity checks within smart contracts, or other similar traditional financial (TradFi) regulations, will backfire, as did efforts to control the spread of information on the internet.
He also warned that governments and legacy financial institutions will use TradFi incentives to drive people to permissioned custody through traditional investment vehicles like exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which have benefits over holding crypto directly, including use as collateral for loans. He added:
“This is simply a chapter that will lead to an inevitable victory for these open networks. Over time, they will win, but along the way, you’re going to see regulations and things meant to delay progress.”
Entrenched financial institutions are pushing regulations to slow down innovation while they position themselves to enter the crypto sector over the next decade, Reeves told Cointelegraph.
Despite this pressure, protecting open-source software developers from legal liability remains the biggest priority to protecting permissionless financial protocols from centralization and regulatory overreach, he said.
Related: US Treasury’s DeFi ID plan is ‘like putting cameras in every living room’
Financial Institutions and governments enter the crypto world
As legacy financial institutions continue to increase their presence in crypto and demand tighter government regulation over the sector, privacy and financial sovereignty advocates worry the increased scrutiny could undermine the core principles of crypto and DeFi.
DeFi protocols promise to democratize finance and bank the unbanked, allowing anyone in the world with a cellphone and an internet connection to shift value and risk through an open, global financial system.
Forcing government-issued credential checks or imposing other know-your-customer (KYC) requirements onto DeFi protocols undermines permissionless access, decentralization, and increases financial surveillance risks, critics say.
These risks would also make crypto and DeFi indistinguishable from the legacy financial system they were meant to replace, critics of these policies argue.
Magazine: Can privacy survive in US crypto policy after Roman Storm’s conviction?
People working to support homeless veterans say a bill advancing in the state Capitol would provide much needed funding. But they also say it doesn’t address a housing need outside of southeastern Wisconsin.
This week, the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee unanimously approved funding for the bill, which would provide $1.9 million spread out in $25 per diem payments to nonprofits that house veterans.
Greg Fritsch is president of the Center for Veterans Issues, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit that provides housing and supportive services for veterans throughout the state. Fritsch told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that the bill is a step in the right direction.
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“It’s not enough, but it will go a long way,” he said.
Besides safe housing, the Center for Veterans Issues program offers support programs and meals to veterans. Fritsch said his group typically operates on a yearly $500,000 deficit, which the bill’s funding would help alleviate.
“Costs never stop going up,” he said. “This will go a long way to helping us provide more beds to veterans.”
Fritsch said his program currently houses 81 men and five women in sites around southeastern Wisconsin.
Currently, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs provides about $85 in per diem payments to nonprofit veterans support organizations for housing and care.
While Fritsch said his organization provides some services like rental assistance statewide, its transitional housing work is only happening in southeastern Wisconsin.
Joey Hoey, assistant deputy secretary at the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, told “Wisconsin Today” there is clearly a problem in finding safe housing for veterans, and funding is part of that problem.
Hoey said the $85 per diem payments from the federal VA “is barely enough to house (veterans), let alone provide the kind of counseling and education to get people back on their feet.”
In September of last year, the state VA closed two of its Veteran Housing and Recovery Program facilities, one based in Chippewa Falls and the other in Green Bay.
The bill advanced by the finance committee would not provide the state VA with money to reopen the centers. Instead, it goes toward nonprofit programs which are currently based in southeastern Wisconsin, according to Hoey.
“We fully support these nonprofits — they’re our partners and they do great work. But they’re in Madison, Janesville and Milwaukee,” he said. “It means that none of this money is going to help, no matter what some might try and tell you. This money is not going to help homeless veterans in the northern and western parts of the state.”
Hoey said he previously warned lawmakers the closures of state facilities in northern Wisconsin would happen without proper funding in the state budget. The compromise budget between Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the Republican-controlled Legislature didn’t include funding for the state VA facilities.
“The Joint Finance Committee did this knowing full well that we would have to close those two facilities,” Hoey said. “When the Legislature voted the final vote and didn’t put that money back in the budget, we had to make the tough decision to figure out how much money we had, and we could only keep one of the sites open.”
The state VA still operates a veterans care facility in Union Grove in southeastern Wisconsin.
Finance
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An Australian bank has apologised to its customers after telling them it was “pleased” to swiftly pass on the RBA’s latest rate hike this week. ME Bank is among the quickest lenders to pass on the interest rake hike, with customers to start incurring the higher level of interest from Saturday.
Understandably, most customers did not welcome the news. A sentiment that the was perhaps compounded by the bank’s cheery tone and apparent delight.
While a rate hike was widely predicted by the market and economists, ME Bank’s team apparently weren’t quite as prepared, seemingly using the same correspondence from the previous rate cuts last year.
On Wednesday night shortly after 9pm, the bank again emailed customers saying it was “really sorry” about the correspondence and any confusion it caused.
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“This email was sent in error, and does not reflect ME’s commitment to communicate to you with clarity and empathy.
“We understand that rates increases can be challenging, and we’re here to support you.”
The mea culpa came five hours after the bank’s initial correspondence, with plenty of customers taking to social media to poke fun at the gaffe, with some even claiming it was enough for them to think about switching lenders.
Yahoo Finance contacted ME Bank to ask about the error.
Most major lenders will not start charging the higher level of interest until late next week, or the week after, according to an extensive roundup from consumer group Finder.
ME Bank customers will be among the earliest to be subject to the higher rate when it takes effect from Saturday, February 7.
Borrowers with BOQ, which owns ME Bank, will be hit from tomorrow, February 6.
ING Bank customers will be effected from Tuesday, February 10.
ANZ, Commonwealth Bank and NAB customers will be impacted from Friday, February 13. The same day as Bankwest and Suncorp customers.
Westpac borrowers will see their interest increased a few days later on February 17. Some of the other subsidiaries of the Big Four lenders will also pass it on that day, including St George, Bank of Melbourne and Bank SA. It’s the same date for Teachers Mutual and Uni Bank.
Meanwhile Macquarie Bank will pass it on from February 20.
A majority of mortgage borrowers didn’t reduce their payments after the recent rate cuts, so the RBA’s move this week might not cool the economy to the degree it wants. For that reason, forecasters are predicting further rate hikes to come for borrowers this year.
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