The hot topic is burnout: the recognition of it, the fear of it, the actuality or consequences of it and, increasingly, taking the steps necessary to help prevent it.
Stablecoins’ role in crypto and beyond: functions, risks and policy
The Plan After Ethereum Merge
A responsive regulatory environment is needed to allow technology-driven financial services firms to thrive
Billionaire Bill Gates has pledged again to give his wealth away, adding that he will eventually "drop off" the world's rich list. 
Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Voices
Intellectual Property and NFTs: What you need to know
Herbert Smith Freehills | Jul 25, 2022
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are one of the hottest intellectual property (IP) topics currently. NFTs can be used simply for marketing purposes or as a new form of asset to attract investment or as part of the transfer of products and services into the metaverse.
This new asset class has exploded across all sectors and raises some interesting challenges from an IP perspective. While NFTs have demonstrated themselves to be a powerful tool in the new digital era, they remain poorly understood.
NFTs can refer to or contain valuable intellectual property rights, for example, digital artwork, branded goods, or logos. Ensuring intellectual property rights are protected and respected should be a paramount consideration in NFT projects.
Releasing NFTs can give rise to a number of IP-related issues, such as:
- Who has the right to create and release NFTs
- Does the NFT infringe third party rights
- What rights are transferred with the NFT (and on resale)
- How this rights transfer is achieved
See: UK Court recognizes NFTs as ‘private property’
Even if there is no intention to create and release NFTs, brands must be vigilant to protect their IP in the metaverse and new web3 economy. Any strategy could include monitoring of key marketplaces and platforms, defensive registration of domain names (including the new Ethereum Name Service) and trade marks in new digital classes, and developing policies to employ if infringement is detected.
The quintessential use case for NFTs, to date, has been the sale and trade of digital assets like art, design and digital fashion. NFTs create scarcity for a digital asset that otherwise, because of their digital nature, would be capable of infinite dissemination.
The ability of NFTs to provide provenance over digital assets has also transferred into the real-world, and it is now common to see NFTs that are associated with physical products. For example, brands can now sell an NFT which is redeemable for a physical product (such as fine wine or sneakers), which creates a convenient market for the trade of those goods. The NFT also functions as an anti-counterfeiting tool to disrupt unlawful activities and tackle infringing copying of goods.
Misconceptions around the transfer of rights
The same is true of NFTs: the NFT is just a ‘certificate of authenticity’ for the digital asset, it does not intrinsically transfer any IP rights to the digital asset itself to the purchaser of the NFT. This has parallels to fine art, where the acquisition of a painting does not give the purchaser any right to the underlying copyright in the painting itself (unless there is an agreement with the copyright holder that specifies otherwise, or in some cases where the painting is a commission).
See: NFT Boom Will Surely Lead to Questions Over Copyright, Control and Plagiarism
Accordingly, as the default case, the purchase of an NFT does not assign (transfer) copyright or other IP rights to the purchaser. This default position can be amended by contract in a number of ways:
- the ‘smart contract’ by which the NFT is minted may contain provisions related to IP rights.
- the creators of the NFT may attempt to define the IP rights in relation to the NFT, before or after the sale of the NFT.
- The smart contract that is currently most commonly used for NFTs on the Etherium blockchain is known as the ERC-721 standard, which does not contain any special rules in relation to IP. A different smart contract, known as EIP-721, specifies that “Copyright and related rights waived via CC0“, with the reference to CC0 meaning that ‘creative commons’ is intended to apply to the NFT and the underlying digital asset, and that IP rights are waived on minting.
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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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The Silent Mental Health Crisis: Leadership Burnout
Management Today UK | Bill Borrows | Jul 19, 2022
The hot topic is burnout: the recognition of it, the fear of it, the actuality or consequences of it and, increasingly, taking the steps necessary to help prevent it.
There is a silent mental health crisis. Major changes and disruptions caused by a global pandemic, looming economic uncertainty, logistical challenges, hybrid working, profit warnings and complications arising from the Great Resignation are all helping to fill the waiting rooms and diaries of bespoke business gurus, psychiatrists and life coaches all over the world.
See: How Entrepreneurs Can Manage Their Mental Health
These conversations are happening discreetly, because society seems to believe that if someone is “successful” – highly paid, in a position of power – they don’t deserve sympathy. So not only are leaders saddled with the responsibility for setting the prevalent culture within their business to prevent their staff from burnout, they must also remain somehow immune from the stress and strain of their high-pressure jobs for fear of being seen as “weak”, dismissal and failure.
It defined it as: “A syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.
Ways to avoid burnout
Surround yourself with good people: Learn to delegate. If you have the right senior leadership team in place (ie. trusted and competent work colleagues who would feel free to bring up key issues on a one-to-one basis), you will feel comfortable sharing the workload.
Read: How Employers and Leaders Can Help With Our Mental Health Crisis
Plan your day: Prioritise your tasks and don’t allow yourself to be deviated. Unexpected events are one of the major triggers of stress, which in itself is a huge contributor to burnout, so try to plan for every eventuality.
Lead a healthy lifestyle: Make time to exercise. Cycle to work if possible, go to the gym at least twice a week. Keeping fit will increase the oxygen levels in your blood and help you stay alert. Avoid caffeine and carbonated drinks. Stay hydrated.
Signs that you are experiencing burnout
Sleep deprivation/exhaustion: Insomnia is the most common symptom of the executive who takes work home with him/her and cannot turn off. This is one of the most debilitating aspects of the vicious circle that accompanies burnout and exacerbates all extant problems.
Over-indulgence/uncharacteristic risk-taking: You are running away from something or seeking to replace the adrenaline that got you to the top position in the first place. There are obviously attendant health issues here – both mental and physical.
See: Pros and Cons of a Distributed Workforce
Cynicism: If drivers such as pride, ambition, challenge and even money now seem unimportant or even meaningless, then you are heading for burnout. If thoughts of “chucking it all in” are becoming commonplace, then you may be about to make a catastrophic life decision and should take a break.
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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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ECB Publishes Macroprudential Bulletin on Stablecoins, Climate Risk, and DeFi
ECB | Jul 25, 2022
Stablecoins’ role in crypto and beyond: functions, risks and policy
Stablecoins are in the spotlight due to their rapid growth, increasing global use cases and potential financial risk contagion channels. This article analyses the role played by stablecoins within the wider crypto-asset ecosystem and finds that some existing stablecoins are already critical to liquidity in crypto-asset markets. This could have wide-ranging implications for crypto-asset markets if a large stablecoin were to fail and could also have contagion effects if crypto-assets’ interlinkages with the traditional financial system continue rising.
See: UK Proposes Regulations That Would Recognize Stablecoins As A Form Of Payment
To date, the speed and cost of stablecoin transactions, as well as their redemption terms and conditions, have fallen short of what is required of practical means of payment in the real economy. Their growth, innovation and increasing use cases, coupled with their potential contagion channels to the financial sector, call for the urgent implementation of effective regulatory, supervisory and oversight frameworks before significant further interconnectedness with the traditional financial system occurs.
Is climate risk priced into crypto-assets?
Some crypto-assets have a significant carbon footprint and are estimated to consume a similar amount of energy each year to individual countries like Spain, the Netherlands or Austria. As the mining and expansion of these crypto-assets are fully dependent on energy supply, their valuation is particularly vulnerable to jurisdictions’ climate policies. Increasing financial exposures to such crypto-assets are therefore likely to contribute to increased transition risk for the financial system.
See: A Carbon-Negative Blockchain Making Money Beautiful
This [full] article provides an overview of the estimated carbon footprint of certain crypto-assets such as bitcoin and its causes. It also discusses the primary policy role of public authorities, which need to evaluate whether the outsized carbon footprint of certain crypto-assets undermines their green transition commitments. Finally, it analyses policy options for prudential standard-setters and the need for climate-related considerations in crypto-investors’ practices.
Decentralised finance – a new unregulated non-bank system?
Risks and Regulation of DeFi
- DeFi is subject to some of the same vulnerabilities known from traditional finance, which can be amplified by the specific features of DeFi.
- New risks inherent to DeFi, such as operational risks stemming from the underlying technology and governance risks, have risen with the expansion of DeFi.
- The lack of traditional centralised entry points for regulation and its opaque and anonymous nature pose challenges for policymakers in terms of enforcement and effective regulation and supervision.
See: A European approach to DeFi regulation
- Where regulatory gaps exist, the innovative ways in which DeFi provides financial services will require innovative ways of regulation to close regulatory loopholes. DeFi may also require the introduction of technology-based regulatory systems, so-called embedded regulation, where regulatory requirements are embedded technically into DeFi
- As vulnerabilities start to build, an internationally coordinated approach is needed to mitigate DeFi risks before they pose a risk to financial stability.
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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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Vitalik’s Announces Next 4 Phases of Ethereum’s Development Which is Only 40% Done
CoinGape |
The Plan After Ethereum Merge
Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, announced the next phase of Ethereum ecosystem development at the Ethereum Community Conference. Revealing that the long-awaited merge will only complete about 55% of Ethereum’s growth plan, Buterin released 4 other phases.
The Surge, Verge, Purge and Splurge phrases would allow Ethereum to process about 100,000 transactions per second.
- Surge introduces sharding to the platform, a solution that largely increases speed and scalability.
- Verge upgrades to smaller Merkle roots, which will improve storage and scalability.
- Purge makes it easier for validators to store more data and reduce their bad debt.
- Splurge streamlines the process and ensures the success of the roadmap.
If Vitalik’s prediction of 100,000 transactions per second comes true, it could revolutionize the blockchain industry. Ethereum’s current transactions per second range anywhere from 10 to 20 TPS.
See: Vitalik: Designing Principles-based Stablecoins that (may not) collapse
Vitalik’s ambitious roadmap could mean higher scalability, speed, and decentralization for Ethereum. The long-awaited Ethereum merge changes Ethereum’s consensus mechanism from Proof-Of-Work to Proof-Of-Stake. This move will reduce ETH’s energy consumption by over 99%.
One of the concerns regarding Blockchains has been about the ability of quantum computers to cause security breaches. Ethereum plans to make its platform resistant to quantum attacks in the long run.
Vitalik Buterin:
The difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum and revealed that while Bitcoin supporters believe the blockchain is 80% done, Ethereum supporters believe that their platform is only 40% done.
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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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Regulators Stand in the Way of What Canadians Want: More Competition in Banking
Financial Post OpEd | | Jul 13, 2022
A responsive regulatory environment is needed to allow technology-driven financial services firms to thrive
The crypto crash and fintech’s reality check through reduced valuations are obscuring a powerful reminder that while everyday people are hungry for competition in broader banking services, the corresponding legislative infrastructure just isn’t there to actually facilitate it. Sustained consumer demand for alternatives to traditional banking products and services alone is insufficient for these firms to thrive. We need modern regulatory environments that better facilitate true competition through authentic innovation.
See: Betakit podcast with Senator Deacon on Open Banking and Competition
Without a responsive regulatory environment that allows technology-driven financial services firms to legitimately thrive, they will remain reliant on significant subsidization by venture capital firms that makes them vulnerable to market shifts like the one we are currently living through. Our leaders have held up our uncompetitive system as a strength since 2008. It seems as if our legislatures are significantly undervaluing these companies, too; delaying promising initiatives such as open banking, locking smaller firms out of payment infrastructure, and being slow to respond to the realities of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins federally.
Is it because decision-makers undervalue challengers, or do they overvalue the presumed stability of an oligopoly?
Some have relished the implosion of cryptocurrency markets and concurrent plummeting of fintech valuations with schadenfreude. But those that smirk at the implosion of non-bank-owned financial services and products also seem to ignore that Canada’s banking system is similarly subsidized — not by venture capital, but by legislation that insulates, and sometimes shields, the institutions from vigorous competition.
See: Ipsos Survey: Most Canadians Say (88%) We Need More Competition
Cryptocurrency initiatives and various financial technology firms created excitement and energy for freedom from Canada’s oligopolistic banks whose stability is unfairly subsidized by a protectionist policy regime.
This vibrant consumer thirst for alternatives to the Big Six banks in order to manage their money is now likely to be obscured by hyperinflation and the looming threat of a recession —to the benefit of banks, not people.
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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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Bill Gates Announces $20 Billion Donation and Obligation to Return His Resources to Society
BBC | Daniel Thomas | Jul 14, 2022
Billionaire Bill Gates has pledged again to give his wealth away, adding that he will eventually "drop off" the world's rich list.
- The world's fourth richest man said he had an "obligation" to return his resources to society. It came as the Microsoft co-founder announced he would make a $20bn (£17bn) donation to his philanthropic fund. In a Twitter thread, Mr Gates said the foundation would boost its spending from $6bn a year to $9bn by 2026 due to recent "global setbacks" including the pandemic, Ukraine and the climate crisis.
- He is currently worth $118bn, according to Forbes magazine, but that will fall significantly after his donation in July to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the charitable fund he set up with his ex-wife in 2000.
- Mr Gates first pledged to give away his wealth in 2010 but his net worth has more than doubled since then.
See: Giving block reports, Crypto philanthropy jumped nearly 16x in 2021
As I look to the future, I plan to give virtually all of my wealth to the foundation. I will move down and eventually off of the list of the world’s richest people.
— Bill Gates (@BillGates) July 13, 2022
Read: Apple, Disney, Microsoft among companies backing groups against US climate bill
As I look to the future, I plan to give virtually all of my wealth to the foundation. I will move down and eventually off of the list of the world's richest people. I have an obligation to return my resources to society in ways that have the greatest impact for reducing suffering and improving lives. And I hope others in positions of great wealth and privilege will step up in this moment too.
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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Policy Blind Spot: The Interdependencies of Big Tech and Their Foothold in Financial Services
BIS | Juan Carlos Crisanto, Johannes Ehrentraud, Marcos Fabian and Amélie Monteil | Jul 5, 2022
The purpose of this paper is to assess the interdependencies inherent in big tech’s business models and offer some policy considerations for financial authorities. The assessment of interdependencies is based on the business models of six big techs: Alibaba, Amazon, Grab, Jumia, Mercado Libre and Rakuten (Table 1).
Overview of Insights
1. Digital services provided by large digital platform companies have become ubiquitous across the globe
These companies, big techs, now serve a myriad of customers who regularly order products online, send messages via apps on mobile phones or check their email or social media accounts. By expanding their services, big techs have grown large, and several of them now have market capitalisations that exceed those of the largest financial institutions.
2. Big techs have already gained a substantial footprint in parts of financial services
In some segments and regions, they have emerged as key players over the past decade. Big techs offer a particularly broad range of financial services in emerging market and developing economies. In some of these markets, they have come to reach dominant positions in payments, credit and other services.
See: Fintech Week London Launches Independent Review to Address the Fintech Industry’s Sustainability
Big techs dominate, for example, the mobile payments markets in China and India (Feyen et al (2021)). During the pandemic, big techs saw strong growth, including in financial services such as payments and credit, which appears to have helped them to fortify their market positions even further (FSB (2022)). Going forward, big techs may also decide one day to leverage their immense user base for offering stablecoins.
3. Strong external interconnections are an integral part of big techs’ business model
Big techs not only engage in partnerships with financial institutions to offer financial services but also provide them with technology services such as cloud computing and data analytics. These services have become critical to the operation of incumbent financial institutions, creating a situation of dependency with big techs. Some big techs are also customers and not providers of cloud computing services, creating a network of third-party interdependencies. Taken together, this supply and demand for technology services by big techs creates external interdependencies among big techs and with financial institutions.
4. Internal and external interdependencies come with specific risks, in particular to operational resilience
A failure in one part of the big tech group could render others unable to function; or disrupt the flow of data between big tech entities. Similarly, operational incidents at third-party service providers, including other big techs, could result in outages or data breaches, with potential knock-on effects on the platform ecosystem and its users.
See: When Big techs and fintechs own banks
5. These risks are hard to assess due to the dearth of information on internal and external dependencies
Big techs that are publicly traded companies are typically required to disclose information about their financial performance (eg the Securities and Exchange Commission’s annual public 10-K reports). They may not be required, however, to disclose comprehensive information on their diverse business activities, leaving investors, competitors and regulators less aware of how exactly they create and extract value from their ecosystems. Without this information, it is especially challenging to understand the corporate structures underpinning the collaboration between big techs and financial institutions, particularly outside their primary domicile (FSB (2022)).
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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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