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Blockchain may help whistleblowers of the future

Decentralized technology might have the ability to offer whistleblowers of the future more secure methods for sharing evidence.

Julian Assange is home in Australia thanks to a very, very large Bitcoin (BTC) donation. 

While Bitcoin proved invaluable to Assange, crypto could offer a lot more than just funds — enabling decentralized storage networks for archiving, secure identity management for establishing trust, and safer communication for information dissemination. These are practical applications that can improve reporting and help whistleblowers avoid loss of work, crushing legal battles or, worse, jail cells.

After striking a plea deal with United States authorities, Assange's last hurrah with the U.S. legal system would take place in the territory of the Northern Mariana Islands. Just one problem — flights to a remote enclave of islands in the Western Pacific Ocean are expensive. Miraculously, a single Bitcoin donation covered nearly the entire cost, delivering Assange back to Australia debt-free.

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SEC’s Gensler seeks $2.4B in funding to chase down crypto ‘misconduct’

SEC Chair Gary Gensler says the regulator is spread thin and needs additional funding to keep up with the “increased complexity in the capital markets.”

United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler has thrown his support behind President Biden’s request to allocate a record $2.4 billion in funding for the regulator, highlighting the ongoing need to crack down on “misconduct” in the cryptocurrency industry.

In prepared testimony for the March 29 budget hearing with the House Appropriations Committee, Gensler said the additional funding was needed to keep up the pace of innovation, adding:

“Rapid technological innovation in the financial markets has led to misconduct in emerging and new areas, not least in the crypto space. Addressing this requires new tools, expertise, and resources.”

The additional funding would allow the SEC to hire 170 additional staff, most of whom would work within its enforcement and examination divisions, said Gensler.

Related: Beaxy exchange shutters after SEC presses multiple charges against founder, execs

The SEC chair noted that the prior year's budget increase allowed it to bring staffing levels above what it was in 2016 for the first time, but said the regulatory agency was still stretched thin, adding:

“As the cop on the beat, we must be able to meet the match of bad actors. Thus, it makes sense for the SEC to grow along with the expansion and increased complexity in the capital markets.”

Gensler again described crypto as the wild west, suggesting the nascent industry is “rife with noncompliance,” and that crypto investors were putting their “hard-earned assets at risk in a highly speculative asset class.”

According to Gensler, the regulator “received more than 35,000 separate tips, complaints, and referrals from whistleblowers and others in FY 2022,” which helped it bring more than 750 enforcement actions and “resulted in orders for $6.4 billion in penalties and disgorgement.”

30 of these actions were related to the crypto industry, which resulted in $242 million in monetary penalties and represents a 36% increase over the 22 actions announced in 2021.

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JPMorgan Chase Pays $40,000,000,000 in Fines and Settlements As US Bank Battles Hundreds of Ongoing Legal Challenges: Report

UN Human Rights Chief Voices Concern Over Assange Extradition Case, Wikileaks Continues to Raise Large Sums of Crypto

UN Human Rights Chief Voices Concern Over Assange Extradition Case, Wikileaks Continues to Raise Large Sums of CryptoOn Saturday, the human rights chief at the United Nations (UN), Michelle Bachelet, said that the potential extradition of whistleblower Julian Assange raises concerns for the rights of future whistleblowers and investigative journalists. Meanwhile, cryptocurrency supporters have continued to donate to Assange and his legal battle as Wikileaks has amassed hundreds of thousands of dollars […]

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