Daily Digest - 21 March 2023

Headlines

▌Xu Zhengyu of the Hong Kong Treasury Bureau: The Hong Kong Monetary Authority aims to implement stablecoin supervision in 2024

Xu Zhengyu, the Secretary for Financial Affairs and the Treasury of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, stated at the AspenDigitalWeb3 Investment Summit that as of February 2023, Invest Hong Kong has received interest from more than 80 mainland and foreign companies related to virtual assets to set up business in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is also studying stablecoin regulation, with the goal of implementing relevant regulations next year.

Policies

▌The Monetary Authority of Singapore plans to announce the consultation feedback on cryptocurrencies and stablecoins by the middle of this year

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on Monday that it aims to publish consultation feedback on cryptocurrencies and stablecoins by the middle of this year.

MAS had published two consultation papers in October last year, which sought responses to proposed regulatory measures aimed at protecting consumers from the risks of crypto transactions and supporting the development of stablecoins. The feedback consultation period closed on December 21.

Blockchain Application

▌Payment giant MasterCard launches digital identity service pilot

Payment giant MasterCard announced the launch of a digital identity service pilot, aiming to protect customers’ identities and provide only the necessary information for age verification.

The collaboration is intended to allow them to take more actions in the virtual commerce industry and expand its presence in the metaverse.

MasterCardID is a global digital identity network that allows users to create a profile to verify identity without uploading ID documents to insecure platforms when they need to verify their age or identity. The network currently has partnerships with Samsung and Microsoft .

Cryptocurrency

▌Proposal from the founder of Maker: implement the Maker Constitution, encourage participation in governance

Maker founder Rune Christensen released a governance reform proposal called Endgame on the governance forum, which includes the implementation of the Maker constitution, governance participation incentives (2023), and reuse of SubDAO to simplify MakerDAO governance concerns (2024). 

Rune said that in Endgame, the main tasks of SubDAO include maintaining the decentralized front-end, distributing DAI collateral, handling operational efficiency risks, marginal decision-making, and experimenting with innovative products and growth strategies, allowing Maker governance to focus on reducing tail-end risks, as well as management of assets and liabilities.

Endgame aims to address the key opportunities and challenges facing the blockchain industry, making Maker governance more efficient, transparent and inclusive by establishing a resilient and reliable governance balance. Endgame also facilitates scalable and parallelizable product innovation and growth strategies.

▌Alibaba Cloud will launch a series of out-of-the-box Web3 security tools in April

Alibaba Cloud announced at the 2WEB3FEST summit held in Hong Kong that it will launch a series of out-of-the-box Web3 security tools in April. This Web3 security tool can be used by developers and enterprises in security scenarios such as private key management, risk assessment, transaction review, compliance and user authentication. 

These tools include multi-party secure computing (MPC), identity verification (KYC) and anti-money laundering ( AML) service, which helps Web3 developers protect data, save labor costs and improve operational efficiency. 

Alibaba Cloud will also provide blockchain node services for Hong Kong Web3 developers this year. In addition, Alibaba Cloud also cooperates with the Web3 education platform and community BlockchainAcademy and the blockchain infrastructure solution provider NodeReal to build Hong Kong's Web3 ecosystem, cooperate with Blockchain Academy to establish a new Web3 community, and organise blockchain education activities and competitions. 

These initiatives will provide learning, work and business opportunities for young people and start-ups.