The upcoming implementation of a major regulatory push by the European Union to control how companies can operate on the Internet has killed another venture in the cryptocurrency sphere. This story, astrology-based financial investment, and many more feature in today’s edition of Bitcoin in Brief.
Also Read: Marvel, The Simpsons Go Crypto
Parity Shuts Down ICO Passport Service
The team behind Parity Technologies, the developers of the Parity multi-signature wallet, have announced they are shutting down PICOPS, a service used by ICO campaigns to comply with KYC/AML regulations by validating that the owner of an Ethereum wallet has already passed an ID background check. The reason for the closure is a new EU dictate called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is meant to bring a new set of “digital rights” for EU citizens and guard their personal data. The regulation that will come into force this Friday has already killed other services in the crypto space such as the P2P exchange Cointouch and has forced others to change the way they do business such as Localbitcoins.
The Parity team explained that: “GDPR creates new and untested challenges when storing personal information on the blockchain. These challenges make running a service like PICOPS more difficult. We are looking at ways of resolving the uncertainty and making PICOPS compliant with GDPR while keeping it useful. However, as things stand, the solutions we have identified restrict the service to a very limited set of features. Because of this, the significant resources required to make PICOPS GDPR-compliant, and the fact that PICOPS is not part of our core technology stack, we have decided to discontinue the service, despite overwhelming market needs and demand.”
