Crypto Currency Exchange — Part 2 — Legal issues in Malta
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Crypto Currency Exchange — Part 2 — Legal issues in Malta

Cryp­to-exchanges are cur­rent­ly the most excit­ing area of the cryp­to-sphere. In the first arti­cle of our three-part series about cryp­to-exchanges we have there­fore focused on their basic func­tion­al­i­ty and prop­er­ties. In addi­tion, we con­sid­ered advan­tages and dis­ad­van­tages of cen­tral and decen­tral­ized exchanges. Whether cen­tral­ized or decen­tral­ized, cryp­to-exchanges are con­front­ed with a mul­ti­tude of prob­lems and...

Malta Blockchain Summit proves to be a major success!
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Malta Blockchain Summit proves to be a major success!

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Dr. Wern­er & Part­ner suc­cess­ful­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed at the Mal­ta Blockchain Sum­mit which was held on the 1st and 2nd of Novem­ber 2018 at the Inter­con­ti­nen­tal Hotel in St. Julian’s. The com­pa­ny stand proved to be an imme­di­ate suc­cess with a record num­ber of del­e­gates and peo­ple vis­it­ing and queues form­ing to sam­ple the...

The Financial Instrument Test: A brief analysis.
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The Financial Instrument Test: A brief analysis.

Introduction. The cur­rent ‘talk of the town’ for all Blockchain & Cryp­to-enthu­si­asts is an inno­v­a­tive test for­mu­lat­ed by the Mal­ta Finan­cial Ser­vices Author­i­ty (MFSA) enti­tled: the Finan­cial Instru­ment Test. This analy­sis and ‘deter­mi­na­tion’ will be the manda­to­ry barom­e­ter for all forms of enter­pris­es propos­ing to intro­duce DLT [Dis­trib­uted Ledger Tech­nol­o­gy] Assets into ‘Blockchain island’. More­over,...

Malta and its role in the Blockchain/Cryptocurrency Revolution
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Malta and its role in the Blockchain/Cryptocurrency Revolution

Introduction ‘Viva La Rev­olu­cion!’ shout­ed the throngs of crowds in the streets of Havana. With a new regime in place, the bal­ance of pow­er had shift­ed, and the par­a­digm of soci­ety had changed for­ev­er. A phrase which has been immor­talised and enshrined in his­to­ry is rein­vent­ing itself in this new and glo­ri­ous era where Fin­tech...

The Role of the VFA Agent (Malta).
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The Role of the VFA Agent (Malta).

Introduction A thor­ough read­ing of the pro­posed Vir­tu­al Finan­cial Assets Act, 2018 high­lights the neces­si­ty to have a sys­tem of checks and bal­ances ensur­ing that who­ev­er is advis­ing clients in the realm of tokens and cryp­tocur­ren­cies is essen­tial­ly com­pe­tent, qual­i­fied and dili­gent. This is cer­tain­ly one of the main rea­sons why the leg­is­la­tor felt the...

Three Bills Published aimed at Regulating the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Sector.
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Three Bills Published aimed at Regulating the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Sector.

Introduction After a much-antic­i­pat­ed wait, the Mal­tese Gov­ern­ment has pub­lished three Bills aimed pri­mar­i­ly at: 1) Reg­u­lat­ing Vir­tu­al Finan­cial Assets, 2) Estab­lish­ing a Mal­ta Dig­i­tal Inno­va­tion Author­i­ty and 3) Reg­u­lat­ing des­ig­nat­ed inno­v­a­tive tech­nol­o­gy arrangements/services. Whilst Dr. Wern­er & Part­ner will be analysing in detail the con­tents of each Bill [in future arti­cles], it is imper­a­tive...

An Analysis of Virtual Currencies in terms of the Proposed ‘Fifth Money Laundering Directive’.
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An Analysis of Virtual Currencies in terms of the Proposed ‘Fifth Money Laundering Directive’.

Introduction Tony Stark [an entire­ly fic­ti­tious char­ac­ter] once remarked: ‘Is it bet­ter to be feared or respect­ed? And I say: ‘Is it too much to ask for both?’ One can cer­tain­ly sur­mise that Vir­tu­al Cur­ren­cies are final­ly giv­en the nec­es­sary ‘respect’ through their inser­tion in the ‘Amend­ment to the Fourth Mon­ey Laun­der­ing Direc­tive’ [col­lo­qui­al­ly known...

Smart Contracts — Can Machines Rule the World?
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Smart Contracts — Can Machines Rule the World?

A ‘Smart’ Introduction. You may all be famil­iar with ‘Skynet’ — the fic­tion­al neur­al-based con­scious group and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence sys­tem that serves as ‘the Ter­mi­na­tor’ film series’ main antag­o­nist. In the movie series, Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence (AI) had reached a stage where it was final­ly able to con­scious­ly decide and exe­cute its plan [albeit rather unilaterally/independently]...

Malta destined to be leading Crypto-exchange island.
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Malta destined to be leading Crypto-exchange island.

Binance comes to Malta! Recent­ly, Mal­ta was once again in the news as Binance, the largest cryp­tocur­ren­cy trad­ing plat­form in the world announced that it was relo­cat­ing to sun­ny ‘Blockchain Island’. Fol­low­ing a Chi­nese ICO ban, the Hong Kong-based exchange plat­form, was com­pelled to look else­where in Asia for a hub and sought the Japan­ese...

Blockchain Origin and Practical Application
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Blockchain Origin and Practical Application

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Dr. Wern­er & Part­ner attend­ed a Sem­i­nar [organ­ised by the Mal­ta Insti­tute of Accoun­tants] deal­ing with the ubiq­ui­tous word we have now all grown accus­tomed to: Blockchain. Estab­lish­ing trust in Blockchain. Pre­lim­i­nary dis­cus­sions focused on estab­lish­ing ‘trust’ in the Blockchain tech­nol­o­gy. Keynote speak­ers not­ed that where­as before, trust was placed sole­ly in the...