Degen Lawyer's Newsletter

8th August, 2023

GM. Welcome to Degen Lawyer's Newsletter, where we bring you your weekly dose of legal insights and regulatory updates in crypto and emerging tech space. Our expert lawyers serve up curated analysis, breaking news, and expert commentary, sprinkled with a healthy dose of memes.

In this week’s edition:

1. Updates from around the world

2. Regulatory Watch - Indian Parliament closes in on digital data protection law!

3. Weekly Breakdown - ‘What is ‘Halving’?

4. Article in the spotlight - ‘Read this before you use Google's BARD’

5. Tech Chronicles - Musk v. Zuck - The fight of the Century?

Updates From Around The World

• India Propels Global Crypto Framework with G20

  India is in an enviable position, it holds the post of President of G20, while the post in most years the post is mainly titular, India is looking to utilise the position to push for a global crypto framework. In particular highlight the digital asset risks in developing economies and need for increased protection measures and awareness. India is playing its foreign policy very strategically but Indians worry that every day that there is a lack of clear regulations, Indian Web 3 businesses are affected.

• PayPal Rolls Out PYUSD, new Stablecoin Alert !

  PayPal has rolled out its very own stablecoin, PYUSD. Issued by Paxos Trust Co., PYUSD is tied to the U.S. dollar and boasts total liquidity. Built on Ethereum, PYUSD can be swapped for other cryptos on PayPal and transferred to Venmo. With this move, PayPal is pushing the envelope, becoming a formidable crypto payment force. Yes we accept PYUSD now, move over USDC.

• Singapore Red Cross Welcomes Crypto Donations

  Singapore Red Cross, in partnership with licensed crypto payment gateway Triple-A, now accepts cryptocurrency donations! This crypto-forward move, which might have been influenced by the recent High Court's declaration of cryptocurrency as private property, enables crypto-hodlers and degens to become philanthropists and help the vulnerable. Feeling charitable today? Donate to the Singapore Red Cross in crypto!

• Coinbase filed a Motion to dismiss SEC lawsuit

  1. SEC has accused Coinbase of failing to register as a Security Agency/ Broker and Clearing agency since 2019.

  2. Coinbase argues that the SEC allowed them to go public in 2021 with the same business it operates now.

  3. The SEC has violated due process and the subject matter falls outside the SEC’s jurisdiction. SEC sought a clarification from Congress of its role in regulating the Virtual Asset market and stated it did not know how to proceed, despite receiving no clarification, SEC has proceeded to regulate through enforcement.

  4. Coinbase alleges that the 12 tokens identified by SEC are not ‘investment contracts’ as there is no contractual right to the profits/income/assets of an enterprise.

  5. Coinbase’s staking customer receive ministerial services not managerial services.

  Coinbase the hero we deserve and so badly need. Coinbase has done everything right to work within the ambit of the existing ecosystem and looked to be compliant at every stage. Now it’s finally had enough.

  

Regulatory Watch

Indian Parliament closes in on digital personal data protection law!

After a long and painful wait and several iterations, the Lok Sabha, India's lower house of parliament, has finally passed the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023, amidst vocal opposition. The Digital Data Protection Bill, 2023 (DPDP Bill) aims to protect the privacy of individuals and their personal data in the digital age.

What does the Bill regulate?

It lays down the framework for the collection, processing, and use of personal data in India.

Some of the important provisions that you should care about-

• Definition of personal data: The Bill defines personal data as any information that relates to an identifiable individual, whether directly or indirectly.

• Consent: The Bill requires that personal data can only be collected, processed, or used with the consent of the individual concerned.

• Rights of individuals: The Bill gives individuals a number of rights over their personal data, including the right to access, correct, and delete their data.

• Data fiduciaries: The Bill creates the concept of data fiduciaries, which are organizations that collect, process, or use personal data. Data fiduciaries are subject to a number of obligations under the Bill, including the obligation to protect personal data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.

• Penalties: The Bill provides for penalties for entities that violate its provisions, such as fines of up to ₹250 crore.

• International jurisdiction: The Bill applies to the processing of personal data within India, as well as to the processing of personal data outside India if the data is collected for offering goods or services in India.

• Exemption: The Bill exempts certain government agencies from the purview of its provisions such as the intelligence agency, armed forces to name some.

The bill also received a fair share of criticism. The DPDP Bill has been criticized by some for not explicitly prohibiting the sale of personal data. It also received backlash for its exemption of certain government agencies from its ambit. Despite it being called complex, restrictive and difficult to implement, the DPDP Bill is a major step towards enhanced personal data protection and responsible handling of data in the country.

Weekly Explainer

What is ‘halving’ in blockchain?

Halving in blockchain refers to a 50% reduction in mining rewards. Mining rewards are the incentives given to blockchain miners, who verify and add new transactions and blocks to the blockchain. This reward, usually in the form of the blockchain's native cryptocurrency, so generally halving refers to the reduction in the cryptocurrency mined by blockchain miners.

What is the purpose of halving?

The purpose of halving in cryptocurrency is twofold:

Inflation control: By reducing the mining rewards, the amount of new coins entering the market decreases. This scarcity can potentially increase the value of the currency if demand stays steady or increases.

Lifespan extension: Halving slows the rate at which new coins are created, meaning it takes longer to reach the maximum supply. For instance, Bitcoin's final coin is estimated to be mined around the year 2140, thanks to halving events.

Both aspects contribute to maintaining a healthy, sustainable crypto economy.

In Bitcoin's case, halving occurs every 210,000 blocks created, (roughly every four years) to control inflation. Imagine a gold mine halving the amount of gold found each day. This scarcity tends to increase value like how the price of a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, can go up post a halving event, due to the decrease in supply of the crypto but a steady demand.

To learn more about such concepts, visit our resource page linked below:

Article in Spotlight

You need to read this before you use Google's new AI Chatbot BARD!

Our interactions on the internet leave behind a trail of data, this digital footprint is of high value, so much so that it is said to be more valuable than gold or oil. Several countries have come up with their own data protection such as EU's General Data Protection Regulation, Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act etc. This has resulted in technical companies such as Google, Facebook etc., becoming more transparent about their use of user data.

Google collects the conversations that you have with Bard, related product-usage information, your location (learn why and how they collect your location here) and your feedback. Generally, your conversations are linked with your Google Account, this is then reviewed by Google’s human reviewers. Before they can access this data, your data is disconnected from your Google Account. However, they can identify you or others, if you refer to any unique identifiers, such as your passport number, address, etc.

Controlling Access to your Conversations

To some extent, you can control how the data is collected and used by Google. You can pause storage of your conversations. You can also review or delete the conversations, and also set up your Bard activity page to auto-delete your data. You can do this by editing your Bard activity. However, if your conversation has already been reviewed by their human reviewers will not be deleted by deleting your Bard activity. This is retained for 3 years.

Google’s collection of user data is consistent with their Privacy Policy.

Why does Google Need your Data ?

Companies use data to understand our preferences, behaviours, and interests, enabling them to deliver personalized experiences and targeted advertisements. Data collection fuels advancement in artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, which rely on vast amounts of data for training and improvement. This is turn is used by advertisers to create highly targeted campaigns, reaching individuals who are more likely to be interested in their products or services.

So what did we do to understand how to protect you from Bard? Well ofcoutrse, we asked Bard! And Bard was kind enough to oblige:

• Do not share personal information that you do not want to be shared. This includes your name, address, phone number, email address, and any other identifying information.

• Be aware of the context in which you are conversing with me. For example, if you are conversing with me in a public forum, your conversation may be visible to others.

• Use a privacy-focused browser, such as Brave or Firefox. These browsers have built-in privacy features that can help to protect your privacy.

• Use a VPN to encrypt your traffic. A VPN will encrypt all of your traffic, making it more difficult for anyone to track your online activity.

• Be aware of the privacy policies of the websites and services you use. These policies will tell you how your data is collected and used.

To read more such informative articles, visit our Blog:

Tech Chronicles- Stories from the wild world of Tech

In this weeks edition of Crypto Chronicles:

Musk v. Zuck finally happening?

Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg had been trash-talking each other for months, with Threads taking on twitter, it was only a matter of time and it all came to a head when Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a cage fight. Zuckerberg replied with “Send Me Location,” the world was in disbelief and Dana White smelled an opportunity 🤑 

But then, things got weird. Musk started tweeting about how he was training for the fight by lifting weights in the office. Zuckerberg, on the other hand, posted a picture with legends like Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski. Purely intimidation tactics we thought, but now it looks like Dana White is talking to both parties every day and wants to make it a global phenomenon.

Musk tweeted this a couple days ago, and it looked like it was officially on:

However we dont have the exact dates yet due to some (possibly real/ possibly fake) issues faced by Musk.

Check out the memes under these tweets, its one for the ages.

We for one cannot wait to grab a bag of 🍿 and crack open a cold one while we watch two Billionaires fight it out over (oh who even remembers at this point).

That’s all for this week folks, we’ll catch you in the next one.

Thank you for reading!

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