Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Research
OSC Innovation Office Survey Invitation – KYC, KYP, Suitability Survey
OSC Innovation Office | Jonathan Yeung | Jun 9, 2021
The Office of Economic Growth and Innovation (Innovation Office) is a new branch at the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) dedicated to accelerating innovation, bolstering capital formation, and reducing regulatory burden in Ontario’s capital markets. They help innovative businesses understand securities laws and strive to make the OSC a more innovative and efficient regulator.
The Innovation Office is publishing a survey to collect experiences and views on the use of regulatory technology (RegTech) solutions to satisfy the Know-Your Product (KYP), Know-Your-Client (KYC) and suitability obligations in National Instrument 31-103 Registration Requirements, Exemptions and Ongoing Registrant Obligations.
See: Ontario moving ahead with expanded mandate for OSC
The survey is open from June 7th – 25th. We appreciate your response. The OSC Innovation Office invites you to participate in a short 8–10-minute survey to share your experiences and views on the use of technology (e.g., RegTech) solutions to satisfy the Know-Your Product (KYP), Know-Your-Client (KYC) and suitability obligations in National Instrument 31-103 Registration Requirements, Exemptions and Ongoing Registrant Obligations.
You will be asked a few questions at the beginning of the survey to make sure that you are eligible to respond.
By completing the survey, you will be helping the OSC Innovation Office understand current experiences and views to inform modernizing regulation as well as design a potential test theme for a new Ontario-specific regulatory testing environment.
Please submit your response by June 25, 2021.
Your answers will be completely anonymous and analyzed along with responses obtained from other registrants, solution providers and individual investors. If you are not the primary respondent of this survey, we request you to share this survey with relevant contacts at the firm that you represent and across your business network.
We appreciate your time.
Thanks and regards,
Jonathan Yeung
Senior Business Advisor, OSC Innovation Office
JYEUNG@osc.gov.on.ca
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanyeung/
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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An Analysis of Bitcoin’s Use in Illicit Finance
Crypto for Innovation | Michael Morell | Apr 6, 2021
Preface
Today, the rapid adoption of blockchain technologies, and the cryptocurrencies they support, are on their way to revolutionizing global financial and payment systems. And, as expected, we are beginning to see a balancing between innovators and regulators, with prominent voices weighing in— some touting cryptocurrency as the future of finance and others raising concerns about the illicit finance implications of the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Having devoted my career to protecting and advancing the national security interests of the United States, I recognize the importance of ensuring that technological advancements related to critical industries are accompanied by smart, informed, and timely adjustments to regulatory frameworks, policies, and laws. Those who safeguard our nation simply must have the right tools to do their jobs. Period.
See: Binance Under the Microscope: Former FBI Agent Discusses Possible Investigation of World’s Largest Crypto Exchange
It is against this backdrop that I, and two of my colleagues from Beacon Global Strategies, conducted an analysis regarding the degree of illicit activity associated with cryptocurrencies in general and Bitcoin in particular. The project was sponsored by a group of leading cryptocurrency innovators and investors. The terms of the engagement were that I would “call it as I see it,” with objectivity and transparency, just as I had done throughout my career as an intelligence analyst. I am hopeful that this analysis will help advance a healthy and fact-based dialogue as policymakers determine how to best ensure that these financial innovations serve the national interest.
Introduction
So far, 2021 has been a year of significant developments and milestones for Bitcoin. Its price surpassed $60,000 for the first time in its history.1 Major corporations, from Tesla to Square to MicroStrategy, are adding it to their balance sheets.2 Large banks are providing Bitcoin-related services, with Morgan Stanley saying it will soon offer access to three Bitcoin funds for its wealth management clients.3 Canada has approved Bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs).4 There is grow-ing momentum for Bitcoin’s emerging use as a store of value.
Yet there is a common belief that the Bitcoin market is rife with illicit activity, with many holding this belief pointing to several high-profile incidents. When the illicit Silk Road darknet market (DNM) was shut down in 2013, more than 26,000 Bitcoin were seized by the FBI.5 AlphaBay, formed in 2014 and widely viewed as an heir to Silk Road, was shuttered by international authorities in 2017 after building a customer base of over 400,000, with transactions conducted largely in Bitcoin.6 The 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack that infected more than 200,000 computers worldwide required payment in Bitcoin.7 Bitcoin was even used to help fund some of those involved in the insurrection at Capitol Hill on January 6.
See: Goldman Sachs Reconsiders Whether Bitcoin is Legitimate Asset
The conventional wisdom on this issue has been rein-forced by public statements from senior government officials on both sides of the Atlantic who have sug-gested that Bitcoin is used primarily for illicit activities. Eye-catching media reports, like a recent Buzzfeed article titled, “Secret Documents Show How Terrorist Supporters Use Bitcoin – And How the Government is Scrambling to Stop Them,” add weight to such remarks.
In undertaking our analysis, we consulted a diverse group of experts in the fields of cryptocurrency tech-nology and investment, financial services, payment sys-tems, global intelligence and security, financial regula-tion, and law enforcement. We interviewed executives from major blockchain analytics firms, former senior Treasury Department officials, a senior official from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and a former CIA intelligence analyst, as well as aca-demics, venture capital investors, former federal pros-ecutors, and a former leader in the banking industry. We also consulted studies from the U.S. Department of Justice; the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN); the Financial Action Task Force (FATF); major blockchain analytics firms; the Brookings In-stitution; RAND Corporation; BAE Systems; and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
Sigal Mandelker, former Acting Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, as well as a former Department of Justice official and prosecutor, gave us a significant amount of her time to tap into her wealth of experience on the issue.
See: Online casino real money
I began this work expecting that I would find a set of facts supporting the conventional wisdom on this issue. After all, I believed that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are a largely anonymous way to transfer funds anywhere in the world nearly instantaneously. And I assumed that those officials who have raised concerns about the use of Bitcoin in illicit activity—with the objective of ensuring regulatory vigilance—must be among the best-informed experts on this issue.
However, based on our research and discussions with industry experts, I have confidence in two conclusions:
• The broad generalizations about the use of Bitcoin in illicit finance are significantly overstated.
• The blockchain ledger on which Bitcoin transactions are recorded is an underutilized forensic tool that can be used more widely by law enforcement and the intelligence community to identify and disrupt illicit activities. Put simply, blockchain analysis is a highly effective crime fighting and intelligence gathering tool.
Download the 11 page PDF report on 'Analysis of Bitcoins Use in Illicit Finance --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Stripe commits $8M to six new carbon removal companies
Stripe | Newsroom | May 26, 2021
- Stripe Climate purchased carbon removal from 6 new projects with help of 13 scientific advisors
- The projects will receive a total of $2.75M from Stripe and 2K+ Stripe Climate users in 37 countries
SAN FRANCISCO - Stripe, the technology company building economic infrastructure for the internet, today announced that it is making carbon removal purchases from 6 new projects as part of the Stripe Climate program. These purchases come as part of Stripe’s effort to build a robust market for carbon removal by supporting early stage companies as they scale.
The majority of climate models agree: to limit global temperature increases 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, global emissions need to be reduced to net zero by 2050. To accomplish this, the world will need to both radically reduce the new emissions put into the air, and remove the excess carbon already in the atmosphere.
In May 2020, Stripe announced its first $1M carbon removal purchases from Carbon Capture, Charm Industrial, Climeworks, and Project Vesta—and was the first purchaser for 3 of the 4 projects. Stripe launched Stripe Climate in October 2020 to allow any user to direct a fraction of their revenue towards carbon removal. Since then more than 2,000 users in 37 countries have begun contributing to Stripe Climate’s portfolio.
See: China’s latest crackdown on crypto caused by climate concerns
There’s already evidence that Stripe’s early support spurred progress: Charm Industrial delivered Stripe’s purchase months ahead of schedule, Climeworks began construction on a new facility with 80x the capacity of their previous plant, and, in April 2021, CarbonCure won the Carbon XPRIZE. The projects have also secured new customers and investors including Microsoft, Shopify, Lowercarbon Capital, and others.
While companies like Stripe are making strides in carbon removal, others are focusing on sustainable transportation solutions like the igo core edge electric mountain bike, which offers an eco-friendly alternative to traditional transportation.
Today, Stripe Climate is announcing a new round of carbon removal purchases from 6 new projects, which were evaluated with the help of 13 scientists with expertise in direct air capture, mineralization, governance, and more. Stripe is the first customer for 4 of the 6 projects. For several projects, Stripe Climate coupled the purchase with an R&D grant to further accelerate progress. In addition to the $2.75M of funding today, Stripe Climate committed an additional $5.25M in purchases, contingent upon the successful completion of technical milestones:
CarbonBuilt’s process reacts dilute CO₂ to form limestone, permanently storing the CO₂ while creating a valuable concrete building material. $260/tCO₂
Heirloom is building a direct air capture solution that leverages accelerated carbon mineralization to absorb CO₂ from the ambient air in days, rather than years, and then extracts the CO₂ to be stored permanently underground. $2,054/tCO₂
Running Tide removes carbon by growing and then sinking kelp in the open ocean. $250/tCO₂
See: Former Governor of the BOE, Mark Carney, joins Stripe board
Seachange leverages the power and scale of the world’s oceans to remove carbon using an experimental electrochemical process that sequesters CO₂ in seawater as carbonates. $1,370/tCO₂
Mission Zero electrochemically removes CO₂ from the air and concentrates it for a variety of sequestration pathways. $319/tCO₂
Mineral weathering by The Future Forest Company: a field trial to accelerate mineral weathering by crushing basalt rocks into dust, spreading them onto the forest floor, and then measuring CO₂ uptake. $200/tCO₂
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Find the right VCs instantly
Stephnass | June 2021
What is OpenVC
OpenVC is an open resource (think Wikipedia) where VCs can claim their investment thesis. By doing so, VCs receive less spam from clueless founders. They also drive highly-qualified deal flow. In return, it makes life easier for founders (yes, it matters).
See: BIS Report: Inside the Regulatory Sandbox: Effects on Fintech Funding
2,200+ VCs and counting: Raising funds is a numbers game. OpenVC gathers 2,200+ funds in one place, ranging from regional boutiques to global names and corporate funds.
Searchable by thesis: Targeting is key. On OpenVC, you can search funds by investment criteria such as geography, cheque size, maturity, and many more.
Radically free and open: Anybody can edit a fund, anybody can add a fund. No login is required and it's free forever. You can even download the whole data set if you want.
Continue to the OpenVC --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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BIS digital currency paper predicts money will be unbundled
Ledger Insights | May 20, 2021
Today the BIS published a working paper entitled “The digitalization of money,” in which the unbundling of money is predicted. Fiat money is expected to have three sets of functions. It should act as a store of value, a medium of exchange, and a unit of account. However, as cryptocurrencies are already showing, some digital currencies or money might provide the store of value function. Others may be used as a medium of exchange for payments—hence the conclusion re unbundling.
And digital money is associated with a platform not a country. Alipay owner Ant is used as an example on multiple occasions.
The three University academics that wrote the paper see a re-bundling happening with different functionality, such as for data gathering or social network sites. It’s no coincidence that the two major digital wallets in China are owned by Ant, which aggressively uses data, and social network WeChat. The authors argue that a payment platform is the best possible way to gather data.
See: Canadian researchers develop CBDC digital currency proposal for Bank of Canada
A payment platform that collects data about all your economic activity could provide a lender with detailed information about the borrower’s income and all their payments. “Analysis of such rich data would enable the bank to estimate the probability of repayment with great precision, far exceeding the predictive accuracy of the applicant’s credit score,” conclude the authors.
The hypothesis of re-bundling of money assumes that the competitive differentiators for a currency are about data bundles and networking services. Put another way, a digital money’s appeal is based on its algorithms, its privacy policies and the counterparties on the platform. Unsurprisingly, different currencies will attract users with similar characteristics. Some will prefer privacy, while others may be willing to trade that privacy for the outcome of that data, such as better recommendations. Not mentioned in the paper, but there is a parallel with how insurers will offer better rates if they can track your driving habits.
If currencies are associated with platforms, then the role of banks comes into question not just for payments but for other functions because they lose the primary touchpoint. An example provided is Ant’s Yu’e Bao, the world’s largest money-market fund and Ant is also a dominant provider of credit scoring. Ant owns Alipay, the world’s largest payments platform.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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AI bank of the future needs the right talent, culture, and organizational design
McKinsey & Company | Brant Carson, Abhishek Chakravarty, Kristy Koh, and Renny Thomas | May 18 2021
Technology alone cannot define a successful AI bank; the AI bank of the future also needs an operating model that brings together the right talent, culture, and organizational design.
As we noted at the beginning of this series on the AI bank of the future, disruptive AI technologies can dramatically improve banks’ performance in four key areas: higher profits, at-scale personalization, smart omnichannel experiences, and rapid innovation cycles. The stakes could not be higher, and success requires a holistic transformation spanning all layers of the organization’s capability stack.
Our previous articles have focused on the capability stack’s technology layers: reimagined engagement, 1 AI-powered decision making, 2 and modern core technology and data infrastructure. 3 Leveraging these capabilities to create value requires an operating model combining structure, talent, culture, and ways of working to synchronize all layers of the stack. Synchronizing these layers is not easy. Any organization undertaking an AI-bank transformation must determine how to structure the organization so that its people interact and leverage tools and capabilities to deliver value for each customer at scale. In this article, we take a closer look at the need for a platform operating model, the categories and scope of operating models, and the building blocks of effective models.
The heart of an AI bank is always-on customer interaction
The need to change a bank’s operating model arises from a combination of external and internal circumstances. Externally, as consumers and businesses increasingly rely on AI technologies in daily life, banks are shifting the foundation of their business models from products to experiences. In other words, as many traditional banking products become embedded—or even “invisible”—within beyond-the-bank journeys, experiences become the more salient element of a customer’s relationship with the bank.
See: 4 Use Cases for Midsize Banks Looking to Implement a Modern Data Management Solution
This shift involves a rapid increase in the number of customer interactions, and at the same time, the revenue associated with each interaction is declining. This is a fundamental change:
just a few years ago, customers conducted business with the bank by visiting a branch once or twice a month; more recently, they would conduct transactions several times each week through the bank website; now many customers interact with their bank daily through their mobile banking app, and often several times a day through wearable devices. In short, banks and their customers now have an interconnected, always-on relationship.
Circumstances within the bank are changing as well—albeit at a slower pace, due largely to the complexity of legacy technology and operating models coupled with the steadily rising cost of maintaining and upgrading IT infrastructure. Siloed structures also hamper organizations’ ability to transform themselves. Decision making at traditional banks is typically slow and cumbersome, and ineffective prioritization (done at too high a level without understanding underlying resource contentions) results in frequent project delays and cost overruns. Insufficient domain expertise and blurred accountability—particularly between business units and technology teams—too often cause new solutions to fall short of customer expectations. What is more, multiple systems perform similar functions, and the increasing complexity of IT architecture with a proliferation of applications weakens system resilience and stability and increases risk when changes are made.
See: N26 Co-founder Maximilian Tayenthal talks growing one of the fastest-growing mobile banks in the world
The widening divide between fast-evolving customer expectations and inertia within the bank reinforces silos and weakens the bank’s ability to respond to the demands of the new machine age. The challenge for leaders is to shift the organization from this siloed structure to a radically flattened network of platforms.
Platforms focus on delivering business solutions
Today, banks that recognize the value of AI and technology enabling better customer and business experience are moving steadily toward a platform operating model, leveling command-and-control structures to speed decision making and bring people together in teams relentlessly focused on delivering solutions that customers value. In this agile approach, each platform can be thought of as a collection of software and hardware assets, funding, and talent that together provide a specific capability. While some platforms, such as those for retail mortgages, deliver business-technology solutions to serve internal or external clients, others enable other platforms with shared services and support functions (for example, payments and core banking). Each platform is largely self-contained in producing business and technology outcomes and autonomous in prioritizing its work to meet strategic goals within clearly defined guardrails, such as common standards, finance, and risk control.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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WEF Insight Report: Digital Assets, Distributed Ledger Technology, and the Future of Capital Markets
WEF | May 6, 2021
This report highlights the results of a series of virtual global workshops and expert interviews held with financial services and technology experts in 2020.
It looks at the urgent need for digital transformation in capital markets, with a view to providing strategic insights that will improve client service delivery, achieve greater efficiency and enable new services.
See: Mainstream Adoption of Digital Currencies Is Still Many Years Away: JPMorgan Blockchain and DLT Report
As well as exploring the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) – now going live in many institutions– and its role in future capital markets, it examines the challenges involved in attempting industry-wide transformation and presents a framework for different approaches to DLT solutions.
Finally, it presents a use case analysis of seven asset classes/product lines, including equity markets, securitized products, derivatives and securities financing.
What’s perhaps most notable about the 100-page report is the length to which the authors go in estimating the potential size of the traditional markets that might be ripe for disruption.
In all, it works out to $866.9 trillion:
- Equity markets: $95 trillion
- Debt markets: $106 trillion
- Securitized products: $10 trillion
- Derivatives: $560 trillion
- Securities financing: repurchase agreements $4 trillion, securities lending $2.9 trillion
- Asset management/fund administration: $89 trillion.
Continue to the full article --> here
Download the WEC 100 page PDF report: Digital Assets, Distributed Ledger Technology, and the Future of Capital Markets --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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