The CoinGeek Pulse Episode 81: Dubai virtual asset law, EU votes vs proof of work ban, NFT breaks into mainstream

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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is moving steadily forward towards becoming one of the world’s leading digital asset hubs with the first virtual asset law adopted in Dubai. 

The Dubai Virtual Asset Regulation Law takes into effect, creating an advanced regulatory framework within the emirate. The law aims to protect investors and to design a global virtual asset industry standard that will promote responsible growth of the industry. This move will also position the emirate to be a regional and global go-to virtual asset destination for businesses and enterprises.

Among Dubai’s initiatives is the establishment of a new regulatory body. The Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) will carry financial and legal autonomy over virtual asset service providers. According to HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, VARA was created as an independent authority to oversee virtual assets industry development—from regulation to licensing and governance in line with local and global financial systems. He added, “The future belongs to whoever designs it.” 

The passing of the virtual assets law in Dubai leads the UAE government to issuing a country-wide virtual asset investment regulation in the future. This is expected as more countries are delving into the digital asset spaces. Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order on digital assets, while Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill this week that will determine the legal status of virtual assets including digital currencies in the country.

In line with its goal of becoming a global hub for digital assets, Dubai is hosting a myriad of events highlighting the potential of blockchain technology for mainstream use. On May 24-26, the BSV Global Blockchain Convention will take place in Dubai for the first time, featuring the brightest minds and the latest developments in the BSV blockchain ecosystem. Visit the BSV Global Blockchain Convention site to learn more. 

Meanwhile, the European Parliament has voted against a version of Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) bill that bans proof of work-based mining. The draft includes banning digital currency services that rely on consensus mechanisms like proof-of-work starting in 2025. Proof of work mechanism requires a lot of energy, which concerns some legislators who pushed for the bill. 23 out of 30 voted against the bill, while six others abstained from voting.

Reacting to this news was Bryan Daugherty, North America’s Regional Manager of BSV blockchain’s association, who said the measure would have potentially removed access to data security advancement that a scalable proof of work consensus mechanism delivers and blockchain requires. He added that by overlooking a scalable proof of work blockchain such as BSV, policymakers are disregarding sustainable solutions that provide the stability and security that blockchain uniquely provides—more efficiently than other finance and information security counterparts. 

A report by independent Canadian auditing firm MNP concluded that the BSV blockchain had proven itself the most efficient blockchain among other available blockchain protocols based on both its data models and real-world research. 

As blockchain secures its place in the real world, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) continue to break more records and starts to get adopted into the mainstream.

A recent study on NFTs names Axie infinity as the most transacted NFT on the blockchain in 2021. The amount of transacted cute battle-Axies hit nearly $3.5 billion. It is also the most searched NFT on Google followed by The Sandbox and NBA TopShot. 

Speaking of the NBA, Lebron James is the latest famous personality and athlete to file for NFT and metaverse trademarks. The NBA star is also featured in the NFT collection “The Moment of Truth.” 

Remember Limewire? The nostalgic file sharing platform, which was shut down over copyright infringement charges in 2010, will be back in May this year as an NFT Marketplace. Limewire will allow its users to buy and sell songs as NFTs. 

In the BSV ecosystem, music platform Jamify displays audio-NFTs where listeners can find artists’ collections of music and get rewarded. Head to Jamify.xyz to listen to artists and get the music started. 

This week, be sure to check out the latest episode of Hashing it Out with Becky Liggero featuring nChain CEO Hakan Yuksel and CoinGeek’s coverage of Craig Wright’s latest thought piece, “The Vision for Bitcoin.”

Watch: Dr. Craig Wright’s IEEE UAE Blockchain Symposium keynote on Bitcoin and IPv6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0BRZbEQeKo