New Territories

Nadia shares her optimism for the potential for DeFi to create enormous opportunities for everyday people in Latin America. Not legal or professional advice.

Nadia describes business opportunities in payments tech in Latin America. Not legal or professional advice.

Nadia describes the crypto demographic in Latin America. Not legal or professional advice.

Nadia discusses daily life in Latin American countries with hyper-inflation. Not legal or professional advice.

Nadia Alvarez shares her background and experience. Not legal or professional advice.

A conversation with Nadia Alvarez, Business Development Lead for Latin America at Maker Foundation. In this episode, we discuss: (1) Nadia's background and experience, (2) daily life in Latin American countries with hyper-inflation, (3) crypto demographic in Latin America, (4) payment tech business opportunities, (5) the enormous DeFi opportunity for everyday people, (6) creative use cases for Dai and (7) policy issues hindering crypto adoption. Not legal or professional advice.

Ethereum is not the only blockchain out there. But it has attracted a large developer community and a big ecosystem compared to other blockchains. Hear why Anton chose to work on Ethereum. Not legal or professional advice.

What does it mean to get enterprises to use the blockchain? How do we get developers who work in big companies to get comfortable with developing software for blockchain? Not legal or professional advice.

Anton discusses the similarities and differences between programming languages for traditional programming and blockchain programming. What is the most popular and what are developers used to? What are the differences between Java and Solidity? Not legal or professional advice.

Anton shares his background and how he got into working in the blockchain space. Not legal or professional advice.

I had a conversation with Anton Mozgovoy, Head of Product at Jthereum.  Just as much as the tech folks can learn from the law and policy side, the policy folks can also learn a lot about the blockchain ecosystem from tech and product folks.  In this episode you'll learn about how a choice of programming language may help spark greater growth in the ecosystem, especially in the enterprise space.   Not legal or professional advice. Have feedback? I'd love to hear from you. You can find me on Twitter at @theJoyceLai.

Topic: Blockchain protocol and regulatory analysis Perspective: Whether the public or private nature of the underlying blockchain protocol could affect analysis.   Not legal or professional advice.

Topic:  Potential U.S. commodities law issues related to monetary policy Perspective: Could traditionally pegged currencies be regulated?   Not legal or professional advice.  

Topic: U.S. securities law issues for stablecoins Perspective:  Generally speaking, how do stablecoin structures fit into the Howey test?  Could arbitrage opportunities affect the analysis?   Not legal or professional advice.

Topic:  CFTC vs. SEC jurisdiction Perspective:  Is CFTC vs. SEC jurisdiction always mutually exclusive?     Not legal or professional advice.

Topic: U.S. commodities law regime and stablecoin applications Perspective:  General overview of U.S. commodity regulatory regime. Could stablecoins be a derivative? An option? How to think about market maker models of stablecoins? Not legal or professional advice.

Topic: Key privacy issues that stablecoins issuers should consider. Perspective: Intersection between stablecoins, GDPR and other privacy law regimes.   Not legal or professional advice.

Topic: What is a stablecoin? Perspective: General overview of stablecoin nomenclature.  Broad categories of stablecoins including asset-backed, algorithmic etc.   Not legal or professional advice.

A small(ish) taste of the general types of regulatory issues that structuring a stablecoin in the U.S. could bring up.  I sat down with Steve Wink, Yvette Valdez and Christian McDermott from Latham & Watkins to discuss this from the commodities laws, securities laws and privacy law perspectives.     Not legal or professional advice.

Topic: Lack of regulatory clarity Guest: Steve Wink Perspective: Concerns around approving broker dealers to deal with digital assets. Custody and issues with exclusive control.   Not legal or professional advice.

Topic: Decentralized Finance "DeFi" Guest: Steve Wink Perspective: Developers need to be be cautious and understand that it is one of the most highly regulated industries in the world.   Not legal or professional advice.

Topic: International blockchain tech race Guest: Steve Wink Perspective: Over regulation will stifle innovation in the U.S. if central banks view stablecoin type innovations as a threat.   Not legal or professional advice.

Topic: Macro trends with stablecoins. Guest: Steve Wink Perspective: Governments are finally catching on to the tremendous power of these products.   Not legal or professional advice.

Governments are catching on to the tremendous power and value of blockchain based technologies.  But in terms of embracing the potential of distributed ledger technologies, different jurisdictions move at vastly different pace.  Steve Wink, a partner from Latham Watkins, shares his unique perspective as counsel to various blockchain entrepreneurs across the globe.   Nothing in this episode, or any content in New Territories, should be construed as legal or professional advice. 

Issue: What will the stablecoin landscape look like in three years? Guest: Marc Boiron Perspective: In three years, there would still be minimal usage. Nearly zero usage in the U.S.   Not legal or professional advice.

Issue: Legal issues for legal issues for launching a stablecoin in the U.S.  Guest: Marc Boiron Perspective: U.S. legal issues related to launching stable coins.  Not legal advice.   Not legal or professional advice.

Issue: Public private collaborations in stablecoins. Guest: Marc Boiron Perspective: Open sourced, decentralized networks are ideal environments for collaboration, including collaboration between public and private sectors.   Not legal or professional advice.

Issue: Libra and the potential stabilization of the U.S. dollar. Guest: Marc Boiron Perspective: No real alternative to U.S. dollar currently but the asset basket structure of Libra may present a model for an alternative. If more trusted parties engage in the process through the association, the public sentiment may change.   Not legal or professional advice.

Issue: What is a stablecoin? Guest: Marc Boiron Perspective: Term could be used to describe anything that is price stable relative to something else. Not legal or professional advice.    

Topic: Thoughts on the Crypto Ratings Council Guest: Marc Boiron Perspective: Exchanges are in difficult position to decide what crypto assets to list.  So this is a good starting point for analysis, but "1-5" numerical format may not be useful. *New issue specific segment format.  Save time and find specific topics more easily.  Some segments may be a standalone perspective on a topic.  Feedback welcomed through Twitter DM @TheJoyceLai* Disclaimer: Nothing in the New Territories podcast should be construed as legal or other professional advice.

With Libra filling up the headlines, the term "stablecoin" has become common parlance. What types of setup does the term "stablecoin" refer to? What are the connections between a project like Libra and existing sovereign currencies? Are there ways that the public and private sectors can collaborate? What are some of the legal issues that surround launching a stablecoin?

A particular type of hacking incident, commonly referred to as “SIM Swapping,” is increasingly common. In this episode, we learn from Rebecca Rettig, a litigator who has worked on crypto cases since the early days, about the typical fact pattern in these incidents and how we can better protect ourselves. We also learn what one can do if you are an unfortunate victim of such a crime. She also explains what is typically in a customer services agreement between a customer and a wireless service provider.

With the "ICO days" of the blockchain industry more or less behind us, how has the thinking behind early stage blockchain start-up fundraising evolved? What responsible fundraising tools are available for blockchain entrepreneurs? Most VCs and entrepreneurs are familiar with the traditional convertible note. Learn how the traditional convertible note could be adapted (and automated!) for early stage blockchain start-ups.