Tag: uk

Crypto Trading Addiction Flagged as Public Health Concern by UK NHS Chief

Crypto trading has become an addictive habit among the younger population of the UK, according to National Health Service (NHS) Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard, who has sounded the alarm on the rising cases of crypto trading addiction. Pritchard has called for intervention from the UK lawmakers, flagging the risks associated with cryptocurrency trading addiction. In recent months, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s administration has taken multiple crypto-friendly steps in order to project the nation as a lucrative location for Web3 businesses.

The comments on the rise in crypto trading addiction were made earlier this week, when Pritchard was speaking at the ConfedExpo of NHS managers in Manchester. The NHS chief executive said that there was a rise in the number of crypto investors who are addicted to volatile and financially unstable crypto trading activities.

“As a society we need to ask: are we okay to just continue picking up the pieces while the methods employed to keep people hooked get ever-more sophisticated, and ever-more opportunities spring up for younger people to get addicted to gambling, including unregulated cryptocurrency,” Pritchard said in her speech, recalling what she was informed when she visited the national problem gambling clinic earlier this year.

Statista estimates that 17 million people in the UK — 26 percent of the country’s population — owned or used cryptocurrencies as of December 2023. In the next four years leading up to 2028, the number of crypto users is likely to cross the 22 million mark. The UK is expected to fetch $2.5 billion (roughly Rs. 20,886 crore) in revenue from the crypto market by the end of this year.

The NHS chief also warned that if the rising cases of crypto-related gambling are not controlled in time, they could pose a risk to members of UK’s crypto community and the financial stability of the country.

The UK has been trying to protect unaware and uninformed people from volatile crypto trading. For instance, UK lawmakers have restricted crypto-related businesses from displaying promotional advertisements to lure customers on to their platforms. The UK treasury has invited public opinions around crypto-related risks and opportunities.

The UK has also opened discussions with India on handling risks and vulnerabilities associated to crypto assets.

The Times quotes Pritchard as saying that that people in the UK are investing their money in volatile assets and it falls to the NHS to “pick up the pieces”.

“This growing problem could create further demand for the health service. Will we tackle problems at source, or do we accept the NHS becomes an expensive safety net?” Pritchard was quoted as saying while urging the authorities to keep taking action to control these financially risky decisions by UK citizens.

In 2023, a rehabilitation centre in Spain had opened a programme for people who were addicted to cryptocurrency tradnin. For up to $75,000 (roughly Rs. 61 lakh), the rehab facility said it would treat ‘addicts’ of crypto trading with massages, yoga, and therapy for as long as four weeks.

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US and UK Announce Partnership on AI Safety and Testing

The United States and Britain on Monday announced a new partnership on the science of artificial intelligence safety, amid growing concerns about upcoming next-generation versions.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and British Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan signed a memorandum of understanding in Washington to jointly develop advanced AI model testing, following commitments announced at an AI Safety Summit in Bletchley Park in November.

“We all know AI is the defining technology of our generation,” Raimondo said. “This partnership will accelerate both of our institutes work across the full spectrum to address the risks of our national security concerns and the concerns of our broader society.”

Britain and the United States are among countries establishing government-led AI safety institutes.

Britain said in October its institute would examine and test new types of AI, while the United States said in November it was launching its own safety institute to evaluate risks from so-called frontier AI models and is now working with 200 companies and entities.

Under the formal partnership, Britain and the United States plan to perform at least one joint testing exercise on a publicly accessible model and are considering exploring personnel exchanges between the institutes. Both are working to develop similar partnerships with other countries to promote AI safety.

“This is the first agreement of its kind anywhere in the world,” Donelan said. “AI is already an extraordinary force for good in our society, and has vast potential to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges, but only if we are able to grip those risks.”

Generative AI – which can create text, photos and videos in response to open-ended prompts – has spurred excitement as well as fears it could make some jobs obsolete, upend elections and potentially overpower humans and catastrophic effects.

In a joint interview with Reuters Monday, Raimondo and Donelan urgent joint action was needed to address AI risks.

“Time is of the essence because the next set of models are about to be released, which will be much, much more capable,” Donelan said. “We have a focus one the areas that we are dividing and conquering and really specializing.”

Raimondo said she would raise AI issues at a meeting of the US-EU Trade and Technology Council in Belgium Thursday.

The Biden administration plans to soon announce additions to its AI team, Raimondo said. “We are pulling in the full resources of the US government.”

Both countries plan to share key information on capabilities and risks associated with AI models and systems and technical research on AI safety and security.

In October, Biden signed an executive order that aims to reduce the risks of AI. In January, the Commerce Department said it was proposing to require US cloud companies to determine whether foreign entities are accessing US data centers to train AI models.

Britain said in February it would spend more than GBP 100 million ($125.5 million or roughly Rs. 1,047 crore) to launch nine new research hubs and AI train regulators about the technology.

Raimondo said she was especially concerned about the threat of AI applied to bioterrorism or a nuclear war simulation.

“Those are the things where the consequences could be catastrophic and so we really have to have zero tolerance for some of these models being used for that capability,” she said.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

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Digital Pound Benefit Assessment Conducted in UK as CBDC Rollout Comes Close

The UK is pacing up its efforts to understand the possible outcomes of rolling out a digital Pound CBDC. On the order of the UK Parliamentary Committee and the House of Commons, the Bank of England and the UK Treasury have analysed the benefits that could entail the launch of this CBDC. The reason is that Britain is trying to avoid excessive expenditure on CBDC pilot and trials. The Bank of England (BoE) has begun its due consideration on CBDC. The lender has roped in MIT to zero down on the pros and cons of CBDCs.

The English CBDC is being scanned to recognise the benefits of issuance, distribution, and privacy of including digital pound as part of their existing financial system.

“We heard evidence that a wholesale CBDC could bring potential benefits for wholesale payments, including by reducing settlement times and counterparty risks. The design for a digital pound proposed by the Bank of England and Treasury is for a ‘platform model’, in which the Bank of England would provide the core public infrastructure and issue digital pounds, which would be recorded in a ‘core ledger’,” the House of Commons Treasury Committee wrote in an official post.

CBDCs are central bank digital currencies that are essentially the digital representation of fiat currencies on blockchain networks. Introducing CBDCs as a mode of digital payments could help nations meet their environmental goals and reduce reliance on paper cash notes. In addition, transactional history recorded for CBDCs would be unalterable that would make record-keeping even more transparent.

As part of the assessment, the Bank of England said CBDCs could reduce higher payments costs faced by smaller merchants. The digital pound could result in market concentration, support financial inclusion, and improve domestic payments resilience as well as cross-border payments.

For now, neither the Bank of England nor the UK Treasury has any concrete timeline about the readiness of the digital pound. The assessment report also noted that the US is also not rushing to establish its CBDC with any urgency.

“While cash is here to stay, a digital pound issued and backed by the Bank of England could be a new way to pay that’s trusted, accessible and easy to use. That’s why we want to investigate what is possible first, whilst always making sure we protect financial stability,” Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt had said in a statement in February this year.

Meanwhile, nations that are ahead into the CBDC game include China, India, Jamaica, and Hong Kong.

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Binance Stops New User Signups in UK, Says Needs Time to Comply with Rules on Crypto Ads

Binance, starting this week, is pausing first-time signups in the UK. The reason behind the crypto exchange’s decision is that it requires some time to get its operations to comply with UK’s laws around crypto marketing and advertisement. The UK is exploring ways to establish itself as a crypto hub. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has taken several pro-crypto measures in the recent past to testify to UK’s commitment to foster Web3. That being said, the country does not wish to see any financial upheaval unfold because uninformed citizens succumbed to crypto hype and made bad investment decisions.

In a bid to control the buzz around crypto in the UK, authorities there have deployed a set of rules to oversee crypto-related marketing and advertising. These rules came into effect on October 8. These rules allow crypto firms, registered with UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), to review and officially approve their own advertisements. If not, crypto firms can enlist government authorised organisations to give their ads the approvals.

Few weeks ago, Binance partnered Rebuildingsociety.com to get its promotional materials and advertisements green-flagged in the UK. Rebuildingsociety.com, that claims to be a peer-to-peer lending platform, however, was not authorised to approve crypto ads and hence Binance now needs to reevaluate its position. The exchange is scouting for another FCA-authorised firm to approve its ads.

Meanwhile, existing Binance users in Britian who have completed their ‘Investor Declaration and Appropriateness Test’, will have access to the services. They, however, will not be allowed to use any new products or services that Binance rolls out before it gets its ad-approving agent.

Founded in July 2017, Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume. The company has had some run-ins with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and has faced investigations in the US. To avoid facing legal troubles in the UK now, Binance is ready to take some time and complete all legal formalities.

The UK, meanwhile, has maintained a strict stance against exposing its citizens to volatile crypto assets that may cause them financial losses. In May, the country was looking to ban the marketing technique of ‘cold calling’ for merchants dealing with cryptocurrencies and insurances.

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Meta Urged Not to Roll Out End-to-end Encryption on Messenger, Instagram by UK

Britain urged Meta not to roll out end-to-end encryption on Instagram and Facebook Messenger without safety measures to protect children from sexual abuse after the Online Safety Bill was passed by parliament.

Meta, which already encrypts messages on WhatsApp, plans to implement end-to-end encryption across Messenger and Instagram direct messages, saying the technology re-enforced safety and security.

Britain’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman said she supported strong encryption for online users but it could not come at the expense of children’s safety.

“Meta has failed to provide assurances that they will keep their platforms safe from sickening abusers,” she said. “They must develop appropriate safeguards to sit alongside their plans for end-to-end encryption.”

A Meta spokesperson said: “The overwhelming majority of Brits already rely on apps that use encryption to keep them safe from hackers, fraudsters and criminals.

“We don’t think people want us reading their private messages so have spent the last five years developing robust safety measures to prevent, detect and combat abuse while maintaining online security.”

It said it would update on Wednesday on the measures it was taking, such as restricting people over 19 from messaging teens who do not follow them and using technology to identify and take action against malicious behaviour.

“As we roll out end-to-end encryption, we expect to continue providing more reports to law enforcement than our peers due to our industry leading work on keeping people safe,” the spokesperson said. 

Social media platforms will face tougher requirements to protect children from accessing harmful content when the Online Safety Bill passed by Parliament on Tuesday becomes law.

End-to-end encryption is a bone of contention between companies and the government in the new law.

Messaging platforms led by WhatsApp oppose a provision that they say could force them to break end-to-end encryption.

The government, however, has said the bill does not ban the technology, but instead, it requires companies to take action to stop child abuse and as a last resort develop technology to scan encrypted messages.

Tech companies have said scanning messages and end-to-end encryption are fundamentally incompatible.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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PayPal to Stop Sale of Cryptocurrencies in the UK Until 2024: Details

Payments giant PayPal will stop allowing UK customers to buy cryptocurrencies through its platform from October as it works to comply with new rules on crypto promotions.

Britain’s financial regulator is due to bring in tougher rules to limit how crypto is advertised to British consumers, including requiring crypto firms to carry warnings about the risk and scrapping “refer a friend” bonuses.

PayPal will “temporarily pause” the ability for customers to buy crypto on its platform from October 1 as it works to satisfy the new regulations, which come into effect on October 8, it said in an email to customers on Tuesday. It said it expects to re-start in “early 2024”.

“PayPal consistently works closely with regulators around the world to adhere to applicable rules and regulations in the markets in which we operate,” it told customers in the email, a copy of which it shared with Reuters. 

It said customers could hold and sell their crypto “at any time.”

The news was earlier reported by crypto media outlets including CoinJournal.

PayPal first launched crypto buying and selling in the UK in 2021.

Regulators around the world are increasingly seeking to regulate crypto assets, after the collapse of several crypto firms including FTX last year left amateur investors with large losses.

After token prices slumped dramatically last year, the price of top cryptocurrency bitcoin has gradually recovered, up around 76 percent so far this year. Still, its price is at less than half of the all-time high reached in November 2021.

Earlier this month, PayPal’s shares got a boost when it announced that it has launched a US dollar stablecoin – a kind of cryptocurrency designed to keep a constant price by being pegged to a stable asset.

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Apple Opposes UK Push to Bypass End-to-End Encryption, Says It Will Remove iMessage and FaceTime: Report

Apple has strongly opposed a move by the British parliament to amend an act that would allow the government to order messaging services to weaken the encryption that protects their users. The Cupertino company said it will not compromise the end-to-end encryption that it offers to its iMessage users for one country. UK lawmakers are looking to weaken encryption of messaging services in an attempt to catch criminals, as part of proposed amendments to an existing law.

The Online Safety Bill, which contains proposed amendments to the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) 2016, has reached the UK parliament for consideration and the government has started a consultation process that will take eight weeks to conclude. One of the proposed amendments will involve requiring services like iMessage and Signal to install technology that will monitor child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on their platforms.

Apple has submitted a detailed, nine-page long note arguing that this demand from the UK government would violate the promise of privacy that it gives to its users, according to a BBC report.

The proposed changes include backdoors into encrypted messaging apps, along with asking companies to reveal details about any new security features they might be planning to deploy to their respective platforms. It is worth noting that creating a backdoor for law enforcement or other forms of lawful interception would also create vulnerabilities that could be misused by hackers and cyberciminals.

Apple has additionally said that it was not willing to weaken its security measures for users globally, specifically for one country.

The iPhone-maker has threatened to remove support for iMessage and FaceTime in the UK, if the government pushes through with the proposed changes to the IPA Act.

Meredith Whittaker, the president of the Signal messaging app was quick to retweet BBC’s report on the issue, applauding Apple’s stern stance against the demands of the UK government.

Previously, Whittaker has also reacted in a manner similar, stating that Signal would rather walk away from the UK, then agree to the proposed changes.

Meta-owned WhatsApp has also opposed the UK’s request to let officials snoop on WhatsApp users’ conversations that are currently protected by end-to-end encryption.

The UK government’s eight-week-long consultation process will take into account the views of the industry. The Home Office responded to the BBC stating that the IPA Act was created to protect the public from “criminals, child sex abusers and terrorists” and that “no decisions have yet been made” while referring to the consultation that is part of the review process.

Will the Nothing Phone 2 serve as the successor to the Phone 1, or will the two co-exist? We discuss the company’s recently launched handset and more on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Crypto Becomes Regulated Financial Sector in UK: Details

The UK has officially recognised cryptocurrencies as a regulated financial sector under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023. Proposed as a bill, this development made the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 a legitimate law in the UK on Friday, June 30. The bill has been stamped with King Charles’ approval and the royal assent which now brings crypto assets on the forefront of being used as tools to revamp the UK’s existing financial system.

The UK has been pacing to compete with the likes of other pro-crypto nations like Hong Kong, Nigeria, and the UAE, which are looking to establish themselves as crypto hubs.

“The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 is central to delivering the Government’s vision to grow the economy and create an open, sustainable, and technologically advanced financial services sector. It contains new powers – available due to Brexit – that will set the path for reforms to Solvency II, which will unlock around £100 billion (roughly Rs. 10,36,8 crore) for productive investment and help cultivate innovation and grow the economy,” the official press statement from the UK government said.

Despite its volatile nature, cryptocurrencies have managed to onboard millions of community members from around the world. The sector has also generated multiple jobs.

Crypto-related employment in 2022 hit the mark of 82,200, representing a spike of about 351 percent from 2019’s figure of 18,200, data by Block Research had claimed last year.

With regulating the crypto sector, the UK is essentially gearing up to bank on all the growth and employment opportunities that the industry unlocks in fintech.

“Today’s ground-breaking Act enhances the scrutiny of the financial services regulators to ensure clear accountability, removes unnecessary restrictions on wholesale markets, protects free access to cash in law, and establish ‘sandboxes’ that can facilitate the use of new technologies such as blockchain in financial markets,” the release added.

Protection plan for victims of Authorised Push Payment scams will also be put in place under this law to safeguard investors against financial risks.

“This forward-looking legislation, following the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA), aims to provide a robust regulatory framework that enhances investor confidence and fosters innovation in the crypto sector. By establishing clear rules and guidelines, it promotes a more secure and transparent environment for crypto-related activities, attracting greater participation from investors and businesses in UK,” Edul Patel, the CEO and Co-Founder of Mudrex told Gadgets 360.

While this does mark a landmark development for crypto adoption in the UK, this is not the first time that the country has expressed its support to the nascent financial institution.

The British government legalised stablecoins last year, looking for avenues to empower local financial regulators with more authority over the crypto sector.

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Amazon Gets UK CMA Clearance for $1.7 Billion Roomba-Maker iRobot Acquisition

Britain’s competition regulator on Friday cleared Amazon’s planned $1.7 billion (roughly Rs. 13,900 crore) acquisition of iRobot, maker of the Roomba vacuum cleaner.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had concluded that the deal would not lead to competition concerns in the UK.

“We’re pleased with the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s decision and are committed to supporting regulatory bodies in their work,” a spokesperson for Amazon said.

“We look forward to similar decisions from other regulators soon.”

Meanwhile, iRobot did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

In April, the CMA had launched a “Phase 1” probe into the deal which was announced in August last year as Amazon sought to expand its stable of smart-home devices, which include the Alexa voice assistant, smart thermostats, security devices, wall mounted smart displays and a canine-like robot called Astro.

Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are wary of Big Tech acquiring smaller rivals, especially those with access to big volumes of user data, and tend to demand remedies in return for approving such deals.

EU antitrust regulators will decide by July 6 whether to clear the deal, while the US Federal Trade Commission is also examining the acquisition.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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Microsoft Hits Back at UK Regulator’s Decision to Block Activision Acquisition

Microsoft’s president Brad Smith said the UK regulator’s decision to prevent its acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard “had shaken confidence” in Britain as a destination for tech businesses.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which operates independently from government, blocked the deal on Wednesday, saying it could hit competition in the nascent cloud gaming market.

Microsoft hit back on Thursday, saying it was “probably the darkest day in our four decades in Britain” and sent the wrong message to the global tech industry about the UK.

“If the government of the United Kingdom wants to bring in investment, if it wants to create jobs (…) it needs to look hard at the role of the CMA, the regulatory structure in the United Kingdom, this transaction, and the message that the United Kingdom has just said to the world,” he told BBC radio.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Smith’s comments were “not borne out by the facts.”

“We continue to believe that the UK has an extremely attractive tech sector and a growing games market,” he said. “We will continue to engage proactively with Microsoft and other companies.”

Smith said Microsoft had worked effectively with regulators in Brussels but not in London, which he said refuted Britain’s claim that it would be more flexible after Brexit.

The company had answered the CMA’s questions, he said, and it had told them to come back with any more concerns. “They went silent, we heard nothing from them,” he said.

“There’s a clear message here — the European Union is a more attractive place to start a business if you want some day to sell it than the United Kingdom,” he added.

But CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell said the regulator’s role was to make sure Britain was a competitive environment for businesses to be able to grow and thrive.

“The decision that the CMA takes is an independent decision that we reached looking at an overall assessment of the impact of the deal on competition, and we think that is the right decision for the UK,” she said.

She noted the US Federal Trade Commission was also pressing for the deal to be blocked on competition grounds.

Microsoft said yesterday it would appeal, with “aggressive” support from Activision.

Appeals against CMA rulings are heard by the Competition Appeals Tribunal, which makes a judgment on the merits of the decision. It will not be an opportunity for Microsoft to submit new remedies.

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