By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor
nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
The Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX) is preparing to "jump in" to initial coin offerings (ICOs) and cryptocurrency, having already been approached by players in this area.
Keith Davies, the exchange's chief executive, told Tribune Business that it was already "active in this space" and exploring how these innovations and new technology could be married with traditional capital market structures and safeguards.
Emphasising that BISX was "on it", Mr Davies nevertheless cautioned that the exchange would move carefully to meet all necessary regulatory requirements, and would be careful not to embrace a technology that took it down a dead-end road in terms of reputation and future business. "The short answer is that definitely they should be looked at," the BISX chief executive responded when asked by this newspaper whether it would seek to attract ICOs and technology start-up capital raisings to the Bahamas. Describing the rise of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies as "disruptive" to traditional systems and ways of thinking, Mr Davies said they "should not be ignored". "Are we at BISX considering it and putting our minds to it? Absolutely yes," Mr Davies told Tribune Business. "We are looking at it, exploring it, and have been contacted by individuals seeking to do it, asking how to do it and who's looking to help us do it.
"We are active in this space. It's difficult to say what will happen next, but at the end of the day whatever we decide to do the regulators will have the final say."
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are a form of digital money which, using the Internet, are designed to provide a secure and anonymous form of payment for numerous types of transaction.
Their creation is financed by initial coin offerings (ICOs), which raise capital for new cryptocurrency ventures. Dr Johnathan Rodgers, the economic commentator and well-known 'eye doctor, last week told the Bahamas Business Outlook conference that the Bahamas should seek to attract cryptocurrency promoters to use this jurisdiction for their ICOs.
He added that the Bahamas should impose registration fees and levy a 1.5 per cent fee on the sums raised from ICOs, and also target technology start-ups currently unable to raise more than $1 million via initial public offerings (IPOs) in the US. Dr Rodgers suggested that the Bahamas lift this restriction once the necessary disclosure documents were made available to investors.
Throwing his support behind such ideas, Mr Davies said: "Dr Rodgers is absolutely right. His thinking is the type of thinking we should embrace.
"Hopefully all these persons and all that brain power comes together to form a cohesive, sensible solution. You're talking about breaking a lot of traditional ways of thinking, which is very, very difficult, particularly on this scale."
The BISX chief said changing deeply-ingrained mindsets and cultural attitudes was especially difficult in the Bahamas, having encountered resistance to change himself on numerous occasions.
"I have difficulty breaking with what was done historically on the ground in the Bahamas," the BISX chief executive revealed. "I have to deal with it all the time. It's frustrating to talk about people who change direction and pivot on a dime."
Returning to ICOs and cryptocurrency, Mr Davies added: "We're on it. With this type of thing there's no timeline. If we go down a particular road, I've seen this technology and needs change in a matter of months.
"We could jump on something that changes and dies within an hour. Look at Bitcoin and the traditional cryptocurrencies. They're changing, evolving. You've got whole jurisdictions talking about whether to let cryptocurrency in or not. Look at Korea.
"This is a very volatile, potentially developing industry. From a risk profile, most banks and entities will not look at it, but they can't ignore it because it's disruptive to their business. What do we do? We're going to jump in. We're going to go through it, and hopefully at the end come out with and find a plan."
Mr Davies said the problem facing BISX and other traditional stock exchanges was their "centralised" nature, where all activity took place on one platform, whereas cryptocurrencies by their very nature are "decentralised".
"The next step is to what extent do traditional entities, such as exchanges, provide avenues of access for this type of structure," he told Tribune Business. "You're trying to marry something; two things which are diametrically opposed.
"You're talking about the exchange, where it's all about centralisation, and cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology is all about decentralisation. Cryptocurrencies by their very nature are non-jurisdictional; they span currencies, they span jurisdictions.
"We've got to watch out how to marry these two types. That's the struggle going on right now. It's easy to say we should do it, but what safeguards should we have? It's easy to say do, but the devil is in the 'how'," Mr Davies added.
"From my standpoint, whether you're the first mover or late in the game, you don't want to go down the road where you choose a technology and provide a service where you hamper your reputation in the future."
Comments
killemwitdakno 6 years, 9 months ago
Still een jump in on the micro investments promised or Bahamas petroleum.
watcher 6 years, 9 months ago
Whilst I agree that this was the original thinking behind Bitcoin (allowing persons to use Bitcoin as an alternative to the normal way of having third parties as the only way to transfer funds i.e. banks, Paypal etc) due to speculative "investing" in the last year or so, it is little more than a Ponzi scheme at the moment. The blockchain technology only took off because it rewarded the "miners" of Bitcoins who were an integral part of the security system. Now it seems as though ICO's are being discussed because the technology is "sexy" and the general public is seen as being gullible. There is such a minimal chance that Bitcoin will be used instead of "regular" money in future as to make it a nonsense. But I'm sure that our experts at BISX and the Securities Commission have done their due diligence, and are up to speed in this new area of finance.
DaGoobs 6 years, 9 months ago
Like how these same agencies were so on the ball when they recently allowed the change of ownership of GB Power Company/ ICD Utilities without consulting the Bahamian public and without concern that the sole power supplier in Grand Bahama was passing from a minority Bahamian ownership to almost exclusive Canadian ownership?
watcher 6 years, 9 months ago
I was being sarcastic with my last sentence. Sorry that the written word doesn't sometimes accurately convey sentiment
Clamshell 6 years, 9 months ago
An exciting new way to steal, as it’s way harder to get caught.
realitycheck242 6 years, 9 months ago
Extensive upgrades to existing hardware and software applications in use today will be required to facilitate cryptocurrency trading.
OldFort2012 6 years, 9 months ago
$20bn worth is being traded each and every day. Right now. Scaleable to infinity within weeks. Just add servers.
bogart 6 years, 9 months ago
Seems a good way to move money that the financial institutions with their trained eyes would otherwise block. And the easy transactions would generate more sales be it of legal or illegal kind. We did ban bearer bonds.
DaGoobs 6 years, 9 months ago
So where and with whom do the cryptocurrencies bank their money?
realitycheck242 6 years, 9 months ago
Since it is a electronic digital currency, The owner of the computer infastructure will be mining the currency. Regulation and Security, are two very important issues with these type of currencies because it will be decentralized.
OldFort2012 6 years, 9 months ago
A whole load of rubbish written by people with an incredibly superficial knowledge of the subject pretending to know something to impress the even more ignorant. Sounds familiar?
Cryptos do not "bank" anywhere. That is the whole point. They are designed to exist outside of the current financial system. Each individual has a wallet which is unique to him and he owns/purchases a piece of code which proves his ownership of the currency.
But the real revolution is that it makes most of the current financial & legal systems unnecessary: all trade, escrow, contracts, etc; as the blockchain is all you need to prove and to transfer ownership of assets. Yesterday we had the first cargo of soybeans traded between the USA and China without any financial intermediary involvement or any bloodsucking lawyers drawing up contracts. All in an instant and without any fees for anyone.
Think about what that means: within a decade all trade will be conducted on the blockchain. The involvement of financial institutions will be restricted to providing liquidity (as it was in the 14th century), contract lawyers will be in the soup kitchens and estate agents will no longer exist. Simply load your house and blockchain title on a site and interact directly with the buyer. Money and title transferred instantly with no bank fees, estate agent fees or any other type of fees. Basically the "Bahamian middle class" is dead. They just don't know it yet.
Still think it's a fad?
John2 6 years, 9 months ago
@oldfort2012 ...all of this still requires extensive upgrades to existing hardware and software applications in use today, traditiona legasy platforms in use now will be obsolete. eg instead of the current ATM machines, crypto ATM machines which are in use right now in hong Kong and Japan will be needed.
OldFort2012 6 years, 9 months ago
Why? Don't think of crypto or fiat currencies as mutually exclusive. Think of them both existing as they do now and being interchangeable and convertible.
If you want to transact on the blockchain, you will do it in crypto. When you want to go to the supermarket, you will be able to choose if to pay in crypto or $.
It is an addition to your asset classes, not a substitute, necessarily. But what it does do is diminish the power of government to institute exchange controls or limit freedom for the individual to decide where and how to invest or dispose of his own assets.
Exchange controls will be unenforceable within 5 years.
banker 6 years, 9 months ago
You know what ?? I am in -- not for me, but for my family. Here is the deal. They already said that there would be a government sanctioned crypto currency called Conch Coin. So my family in the Bahamas (I am already earning a hard currency), uses Bahamian dollars to buy some of this coin. All you need is a computer. They will give you instructions on how to set up a wallet. It is easy. I already have a few wallets for different types of crypto currency. I wouldn't be surprised if Conch Coin didn't give you a wallet as a browser extension. So you pay for your Conch Coin at the bank or at an office, or by mail, or by credit card locally online. You get your Conch Coin in your wallet on the computer.
The interesting thing about crypto-currencies is that they go up in price if they are well run. I would expect ConchCoin to work well, because it is probably the first crypto-currency that is non-fiat(Barbados has a digital dollar already) in the Caribbean Basin. So you have a bunch of Conch Coin in your wallet. What you can do, is immediately put your Conch Coin for sale on any one of the 180+ international crypto exchanges and get American Dollars back and no Central Bank fees. Of course you will have to go through the AML/KYC procedure like sending a scan of your passport etc, and you will need a paypal account, but it is a wonderful way for Bahamians to participate in the global economy.
This will be fabulous for my family who don't have to buy American dollars and paying the Central Bank load.
The other exciting part for me, is that even if I invest in Bahamian dollars, if Conch Coin is successful, I could make 10% in a couple of months in Bahamian dollars just because of the rise in value of Conch Coin. Try making that sort of money with the banks.
This may be a way for BISX to be saved. As for platform concerns expressed above, there are 3rd party custodians. They could list the crypto like a stock and have the custodian handle the back end.
Keith has been trying to make BISX into something. He has tried almost everything. He has failed at everything. BISX is a joke. The Securities and Exchange Commission is a bigger joke. However if Keith manages to internationalise BISX with Crypto and it has the name of Bahamas behind it, by gawd he just might do it.
BISX or not, crypto is the way to go and I am all in.
OldFort2012 6 years, 9 months ago
Unfortunately, I don't see what BISX can be successful at. Denominating local shares in crypto, still leaves them as local shares which are of no interest as an asset class to anyone, at least currently with the way the economy is being run. If he lists cryptos, he will be competing against dozens of already well established exchanges. I can't see his natural advantage, but maybe I am missing something?
banker 6 years, 9 months ago
Two things:
First an explainer. They will not be denominated local shares in Crypto-currency. They will be listing the actual coins -- crypto-currency -- domestic and international. These coins will be backed by tokenized businesses, services, quanta, utility or other value.They will not be exchanging crypto-currency for actual money. They will be listing crypto for buyers and sellers, just like a stock market, except in crypto. They just facilitate the transaction.
1) Being registered with the Securities and exchange commission and having Bahamas in the name, gives it a leg up over some anonymous exchange in Singapore that may or may not be legit. Here you have a physical address where you can go for redress. This will be huge for trust issues. And to be successful, they will have to be choosy as to who they list, which I am sure they have considered, due to possible reputational damage. They could capture a significant share of utility crypto from the American marketplace which is not allowed to deal in equity crypto.
2) It empowers the hell out of Bahamians economically. It frees them from relying solely on the banks for American dollars. And having cryptocurrency with strongAML/ KYC (these are called whitelisted cryptos), there won't be the reputational damage that the web shops are doing.
realitycheck242 6 years, 9 months ago
This might all just result in the revival of the Banking industry if we can become a world leader in this area.. I can just see all nationalities flocking here with their online crypto activities hopeing for great results. if BISX can pull this off and become a world leader we could be the hong kong of the region
banker 6 years, 9 months ago
Exactly. And to your point, Senator Kwasi Thompson wants to make Grand Bahama Tech Hub with blockchain startups. Crypto is just getting started, and if that happens, there is hope again -- until the sea swallows up the Bahamas when they rise due to global warming.
OldFort2012 6 years, 9 months ago
I take your points...and they are valid.
But I am just not sure. The 2-3 biggest exchanges are already doing $3-6 bn in business per day, each. That already gives them legitimacy. Listing crypto ETFs here could be huge, if Americans were allowed to buy them. But I don't know the regulations well enough to argue either way.
proudloudandfnm 6 years, 9 months ago
Need to come up with a new name. If you can't take it in a store and buy something with it, it aint currency...
banker 6 years, 9 months ago
crypto-tokens is what they are called by insiders.
Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years, 9 months ago
Keith Davies is to BISX what Sebas Bastian is to Island Luck.
BahamasForBahamians 6 years, 9 months ago
This is an insult to Sebas Bastian.
Sebas and his business partners at Island Luck are actually sucessfully. Infact, they've build something out of nothing.
the only thing Keith is credited with doing is running the BISX into the ground.
TheMadHatter 6 years, 9 months ago
Im sure Govt is just waiting for approval (or rejection of crypto) at their next secret meeting with the Christian Council.
John 6 years, 9 months ago
South Korea had to discontinue the trading in crypto because its accounts keep getting hacked by the North. Here one bank has had lots of its customers accounts hacked by former employees and other customers. Some were completely cleaned out. Others were skimmed over a period of time before the owners found out. The fear of crypto just disappearing into thin air.
banker 6 years, 9 months ago
Actually, let me correct you. South Korea has banned anonymous crypto-trading because of AML/KYC concerns. They also banned foreigners from trading on their domestic exchanges -- for fear that North Korea is getting money and evading sanctions. To trade crypto in South Korea, you have to be a South Korean national and you have to tie your crypto wallet to a bank account so they know who you are.
John 6 years, 9 months ago
I don't think that is the latest position with the crypto in S. Korea. But i will research, because the source i read said that that country stopped trading period. Because North Korea was hacking accounts. (Bloomberg, January 17, 2018).
banker 6 years, 9 months ago
I think that you were right as of yesterday, but as of today, my Bloomberg terminal says that they softened their stance if people followed the new rules (be a national and AML/KYC) tied to a bank account.
The_Oracle 6 years, 9 months ago
Are you sure you want the name of the Bahamas behind it Banker? You speak of trust issues as if it is a Bahamian asset........ Would you not agree that Government the world over are trying to figure out how to control and tax Bitcoin? Didn't South Korea just recently shut down a few exchanges? What was the outcome of that?
banker 6 years, 9 months ago
The Canadians just issued a new travel advisory to the Bahamas yesterday -- the usual story -- crime.
We can't wait for a deus ex machina to save us.
We have to climb out of the hole that we are in.
The first way is to rehabilitate the name Bahamas. Not everyone thinks that we are a sh*thole country, to quote Trump. If one can make money legitimately in crypto, it doesn't matter whether it is the Bahamas or Haiti. If there is money to be made legally, they will find us.
You never know what the thin edge of the wedge is to salvation. It een Jeezus beatin' an' bible thumpin'. Quite frankly there are very few other choices. (And I made a hell of a pile of money on crypto currency myself, so if I can do it, anybody with a computer can.)
So, bottom line we gatta try this. If we become a crypto center, hallelujah -- we can all buy an ark and save ourselves when the climate-change floods come -- except for the PLP. They deserve to be swallowed up by the ocean and their drowned, rotting carcasses consumed and turned into crab crap -- which is ironic and fitting.
As for trying to tax it, they don't understand it. Just say blockchain and watch their eyes glaze over. Keith has to sneak this one in before someone in the government sees a potential tax grab. I like how Minnis lets his ministers go (not like Crisco Butt who let his minister rob the country blind), but how to create instead of destroy. Sometimes I think that the lights een on inside when Minnis talks, but generally this could work out. It is the first tangible thing that I see that could save us.
There is a huge INTERNATIONAL Crypto conference coming up at Baha Mar very soon. Don't have the dates. A biggie. Big names. Techies in Crypto. All the Biggies. Much about Crypto. If nobody gets killed or robbed, or notices the cheap, shoddy Chinese construction in the hotel rooms, once again we could be on a renaissance.
It is something completely different like this that can save us. We can't save ourselves with the tings dat we gat.
OldFort2012 6 years, 9 months ago
Maybe we could organize a nice dump fire during the conference @ Baha Mar. Give them something interesting to look at from the upper floors and bottle the smell and sell it to them. Something to remind them not to come back. :) :) :)
banker 6 years, 9 months ago
NOTE: I have been messaged through the Tribune from more than a handful of people, asking me for help in how to make money from crypto-currency. They have given me phone numbers, email addresses etc.
Unfortunately, I cannot respond or help, due to my identity management. My firm manages other peoples money, and those high net worth individuals may have political, religious, societal beliefs that are quite different to mine, and if by chance they associate my postings with the firm that I work for, it could damage the firm and my job. Hence I cannot help you. I post on this site through a foreign proxy, even when I was in Nassau, so that I could not be possibly identified by IP address.
What I would suggest, is that I know that there are people using crypto in Nassau. I would suggest a public meet-up of interested people. It could be an informal thing like on the patio at Starbucks or something. Investing in crypto is not a zero sum game, where for every winner there is a loser, so there is no harm in helping others to make money at this game. It requires a keen business mind to read whitepapers of various crypto offerings and make business decisions as to whether they are a viable business or not. Google is your friend, and you should join crypto forums where savvy folk discuss crypto investing.
realitycheck242 6 years, 9 months ago
@Banker 10% of all ICO's have been hacked from 2015 to 2017 ....a value of about 1.5 million dollars a month. If BISX and the Bahamas is to get this right we MUST implement regulation and strong safty nets or suffer from reputational damage. . Hackers are attracted by the rush, absence of a centralized authority, blockchain transaction irreversibility and information chaos," BISX should start with a cyber security unit.
banker 6 years, 9 months ago
It's quite easy to hack an ICO done by novices. Most ICO hacks come from hacking the ICO website. Here is the way most of them have happened.
Lets suppose that you say that your ICO will happen on February 1, at 9 AM. You announce this on your website. Your ICO website doesn't handle any of the money. It is just a notice board. So folks go cheap on this. The way that you participate in an ICO is that they give you their wallet address, you use that in your wallet to send them Bitcoin or Ether and a smart contract puts their crypto-currency into your wallet.
But the wallet information/address is on a cheap website. A wallet address looks something like this: 2NfcaSREac5XrYQLkNQtBa8WBpemYpqEiwUFTR7
It is just a jumble of numbers and letters. So what these hackers do, is that they have plenty of time to hack into the website. Most website administrators still had default user names and passwords as admin, admin or root, password. They hack into the website and change the wallet address to one of their own. Nobody notices until they realise that there this no money coming into their website, and people who send money aren't getting their coins. It is ingenious, simple and clever. An ICO lost $7 million dollars in the first 10 minutes of their ICO.
I think though, that BISX wants to be a secondary market. After you buy your crypto-currency and you want to cash out, you put it for sale on BISX and someone will buy it. BISX doesn't actually hold the crypto. They just connect buyers and seller.
Here is the deal. Most cryptos from ICOs rise in price after the ICO. They don't go down until the company misses its first milestone. So the early bird gets the worm. I have made money on crypto that I bought soon after the ICO, and as soon as I hit my numbers -- a 10% increase in my investment, I sell it. Sure it may have gone up more and I left money on the table, but some of them have gone up by more and a couple of weeks later they are worthless.
realitycheck242 6 years, 9 months ago
interesting facts, Them Hackers on they Game. It seams as if the trading rules for ICO's are just like regular currency.
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