Statement of Intent

The UK is well positioned to serve as the leading global voice for digital currency – a leader in innovation, a leader in regulatory governance, a leader in fostering a positive, productive and fair environment both commercial and for consumers.

My vision and agenda are for the UKDCA to play a more active role in creating this conversation and to promote it in an inclusive and transparent manner. One aspect that attracts many of us to digital currency is that it is not the “old boy’s club” of traditional banking, and the UKDCA can help achieve this. Three areas that would be on my agenda if elected:

Increasing consumer awareness and education via a media relationships campaign, materials on the website, and creation of a newsletter

Working to drive industry participation and innovation by fostering involvement of and dialogue between start-ups, universities, corporates, accelerator programs. The UKDCA can serve as the connection between these parties, as well as to consumers, to government, to regulators and to financial institutions

Lobbying of government and regulators to voice the concerns and views of members, and to encourage dialogue and transparency in the use of the government’s committed funding for digital currency research

Statement of Intent

Haven’t we come a long way in just 18 months? The UKDCA has made an huge positive impact, focussing our voluntary contributions so many of our members to great effect. I’d like to see that work continue.

Just last year, banks and lawyers would only speak to us off-premises and politicians thought we were all running guns or drugs. Now we are front page news on the Economist and front of mind with government and finance. This has all been achieved by volunteers in the UKDCA.

But we have to share all this around the members, and talk more about our impact. Our communication has to improve so that all members can take part and contribute. Slack is OK, but meetings need more transparency and more has to be done.

I’m working to bring more funds and investment into digital currencies to help us run bigger and better systems, help us grow the infrastructure, pay miners, developers and all those who contribute every day to innovative uses of digital currencies and the technology. Investment in ourselves as well as by others needs more certainty and stability.

In the year ahead, I commit to building on the good work by UKDCA members to promote the UK as a leader in global digital currency opportunities, a centre of positive change and developing:

Standards; with the help of BSi, and the excellent technical knowledge our members have.

Banking and Finance; pushing UK banks into supporting our members, businesses to adopt our ideas, getting legislators and politicians to bring on positive policy, as we have achieved with HM Treasury. We need to implement the plan for engaging these bodies as soon as possible.

Membership; we need to renew and expand our member base, and bring companies that are benefitting from our voluntary work into the UKDCA. The outreach program that Adam and Gabriella are running is critical. We need to be realistic about our resources, but look to apply good resources when they are offered.

Globally; working and cooperating with dc communities to open markets, share learnings and help build use and uses.

With limited resources, DCA members have invested time, energy and goodwill to bring UK to current position. The year ahead can see more opportunities to bring that success to a wider audience

Statement of Intent

It’s my vision to position London as the digital currency capital of the world.

My agenda for the UKDCA will be:

To promote the existing UK digital currency businesses on a worldwide basis with venture capitalists, financial firms and investment banks

To bring new funding to new digital currency businesses

To reach trade partnerships with key players (governments, supra-nationals and international companies)

Assist the regulators to optimise rules and regulations around the business

Statement of Intent

My personal mission is to support the evolution of the crypto universe from the ground (multiple distributive currencies) up, with security (elasticity of money supply, smart contracts and regulatory inclusion) though agnostic protocol exchanges) and beyond

Statement of Intent

I am a member of Entiq and Level 39. I am also CEO of Coinfirm that is the most advance solution for AML / Sanctions Compliance at the market.

My idea of the DLT will be that in a longer term this will replace the current value transferring systems and solutions. We are on the edge of entire revolution in this space and Compliance is the key. After implementation it will be the most transparent system in the history.

Statement of Intent

As a member of the UKDCA I will be promoting Digital Currencies such as Bitcoin and its underlying technologies to be adopted into the core of every institution within the UK. The premise is for this new and exciting technology to be utilised in every facet of commerce. I envision that by doing so will ensure UK businesses and consumers benefit from the efficiencies gained from these technologies and propel the UK as the dominant centre of finance and technology.

Statement of Intent

For Miguel, the vision of success for digital currencies and distributed ledger technologies is one of harmonious integration where cooperation, democratisation and inclusiveness of investment banking and capital markets ensure funding and transactional capabilities for the people and institutions who need it most.

Miguel is a self trained developer, university trained designer, certified project manager and MBA candidate.

Statement of Intent

We have a passion for revolution in the UK and I believe that digital currency businesses could thrive here. If we could operate local hubs around the UK we can get the brightest minds working on the latest projects. The Isle of Man is currently creating an amazing environment for digital currency businesses and we can grow on this, helping adapt and build-on this work to push more ideas across the UK.

My goal is to make the UK one of the world’s hubs as a place to open, operate and invest in a digital currency business. I would like to see the promotion of the use of Bitcoin ATMs and Bitcoin zones by working with local businesses and educating them in the benefits of digital currency.

I believe the UKDCA should have a stronger national image, we should aim at hosting events across the UK with an aim at breaking that barrier for the everyday person to get involved in digital currencies and helping them understand how the bitcoin and blockchain technology works and I also believe the UKDCA should continue to help bridge the relationship between digital currency businesses and the banks to help make it easier for businesses to start accepting digital currencies.

I believe we can show that the UKDCA has a good standing in the UK and we aim to keep it that way and push forward with transparency and honesty.

Statement of Intent

Jerome brings startup experience, technical expertise, project management skills and inside knowledge of Bitcoin startups to the UKDCA.

Jerome wants to help UKDCA grow as the entity representing all Bitcoin startups and their customers’ best interests in the UK and in Europe, to achieve the full potential of digital currencies and distributed ledgers. This encompasses more competitive and better financial services, improved financial inclusion of the underbanked, more transparency and accountability for businesses and governments, and innovative supply chain and inventory tracking solutions.

Statement of Intent

I’m proud of the progress that the UKDCA has made over the past couple of years. From the removal of VAT on cryptocurrency transactions, to the Treasury’s call for information on regulation of the sector, the UKDCA has played a key role in driving change. Thanks to the constructive input of our members, our organisation now has a very positive image in the eyes of regulators and policymakers, which will be invaluable as we come up against further challenges.

But there are areas where we need to improve:

Communication with our members. Too often our members simply don’t know what the committee are doing – we need to let update our members on progress more frequently and bring them into discussions more effectively.

Banking. Despite the progress made with the government, banks still remain a barrier to mainstream adoption of digital currencies in the UK. Progress is being made – we have had meetings with various senior bank compliance officers, which resulted in the UKDCA obtaining a bank account – a small but significant move forwards.

Continuous pressure on policymakers and regulators. The measures announced in the last budget – digital currency AML legislation and funding for research were great news, but little has been heard about them since. We need to make sure that we continue to apply pressure and ensure that promises are fulfilled.

We need to be realistic as an organisation and be ruthless about deploying our resources most efficiently. We simply don’t have the funds or membership base to pursue large-scale public promotion of digital currencies. Where we have excelled is in removing specific barriers that our community have run up against – be it taxation, regulation or banking. I would like us to focus the UKDCA even more on these areas and ensure that we continue to punch above our weight as an organisation, and continue to build an environment in the UK that is one of the best in the world for digital currency users and businesses.

Statement of Intent

Over the past year, as an elected Board Member, I feel I have actively contributed towards the UKDCA. Some of the areas I have worked on:

initiating/ working on the Standards project with Paul Ferris and BSI and starting the process of seeking funding;

(with Gabrielle Patrick/ Helen Disney) working with Imperial College on an Outreach programme;

various discussions with HM Treasury to persuade a ‘light touch’ approach to regulation;

meetings with other stakeholders, politicians, the Bank of England to promote a digital currency agenda;

liaising with David Henqvist on the observations to the CJEU for the VAT ruling;

attending meetings such as the Commonwealth workshop on digital currency to promote a light-touch approach to regulation;

building relationships with our counterparts in other countries, such as CoinCenter or the HK Bitcoin Association;

developing a formal relationship with Innovate Finance and coordinating that approach.

Regarding the Standards work with British Standards Institution (BSI), we have already established a funding commitment from a large bitcoin business to sponsor the process. We need to continue our efforts in this line and be ready to work with BSI to deliver the Standard. This is a unique situation for the UK to be in and many countries are looking at us to see what we can do to promote consumer protection through self-regulation. If I am elected as board member I will seek for us to continue down this path and prove that we can deliver something unique for this global ecosystem.

If I am elected as board member I will pursue opportunities for us to get involved with or form part of an international association so that we can relay our experience in the UK to other industry groups.

Regarding communication, I feel we need to simplify how we communicate with members. This may lead to some consolidation of the number of active Slack channels and encouraging more of a direct engagement with members on all matters.

In terms of increasing membership, our Outreach efforts should attract new students to join the UKDCA and participate in its future. We have suggested to Imperial College that all students participating in the Imperial/UKDCA University Outreach programme will join (by default) as Supporter members of the UKDCA. As such, they will not be entitled to vote but the intention is that they would still be actively involved in the association.

In terms of Innovate Finance, I hope that we will continue to build a strong partnership with them moving forwards, especially in areas such as policy work. We should in fact be working with them every step of the way. (Dan Morgan from IF is very open to working with the UKDCA and has been a vocal supporter of us at Standards meetings.) We have been hugely successful as an organisation, achieving all of our policy goals from a light-touch regulatory regime to a favourable tax position for digital currency. We should be proud of what we have achieved. I look forward to the next step of executing what we (as an industry) have agreed to do for HM Treasury in terms developing an industry standard to promote consumer protection. Separately, I look forward to engaging more with universities so that we can be a ‘bridge’ for students to access real world opportunities and provide value to our members in terms of talent discovery.

The future is bright for digital currency in the UK and I look forward to serving this association another term (if elected) to continue our great work.