About Paul
It’s been an honour to be a founding member and work with other members of the UKDCA. In getting involved, I have helped organise a number of our initiatives.
Political Briefing: briefing of many politicians and regulators, I’ve coordinated UKDCA members to go into parliament and put our case. We have been extraordinarily successful.
HM Treasury and government. I helped draft the UKDCA Government response, which has been used as the model for government policy. It’s needed some heavy lifting, and I have tried to take good a share of the unglamorous work to allow other (better looking) members to front up for us.
Voluntary open standards; will help build stability and credibility and we’re making good progress here, but it needs to be pushed over the line.
Meanwhile, I’m leading a company that is working to bring more value into digital currencies, so that miners get paid, developers get contracts and good ideas thrive. I’ve worked before in new emerging areas, and it’s important that everyone benefits.
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