GURA: As the industry continues to grow and as the popularity and price of cryptocurrencies skyrocket, Davidson says he and his colleagues have to get moving, even if it involves a big fight. David Gura, NPR News, New York.
“I haven’t encountered many who would try to put up more barriers for new users,” said Maria Shen, a partner at Electric Capital, a venture capital firm focused on cryptocurrencies. Still, she added, “the wallet space is fairly competitive, so it’s not unthinkable.”

Like all cryptocurrencies, the majors are digital assets that secure and verify transactions using computer science and complex mathematics, known as cryptography. Unlike traditional (‘fiat’) currencies, they are not currently issued or backed by a central authority such as a government. Instead, they run across a network of computers and are underpinned by blockchain technology – a permanent record of transactions that cannot be altered without the consensus of the network.
Additionally, crypto regulation outside the U.S. has changed over time, based on evolving regulatory guidelines. The fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive from the European Union, for example, entails that crypto buying, selling and other operations must comply with certain guidelines in certain regions.