on the crypto
The BRD team is leading a new initiative: Blockset, a business-to-business blockchain technology stack that is focused on compliance, surveillance and security for cryptocurrency companies and government agencies.
What is BRD
After its launch in 2014, Bread was the first Bitcoin wallet to arrive on the Apple app store, even before popular apps like Bitcoin Pro. A couple of years later, Bread launched a $ 32 million ICO and changed its name to BRD in an effort to “unify” its brand.
Since then, BRD has expanded support for multiple currencies, rolled out new features such as payment IDs, and authorized in-wallet cryptocurrency purchases to a variety of fiat currencies.
Recently, BRD partnered with blockchain analysis / intelligence firms Chainalysis, CipherTrace and Elliptic, along with security firm Unbound Tech. The latter has been instrumental in ensuring Blockset's key management capabilities, while the other companies will provide Blockset with regulatory compliance and blockchain monitoring tools.
Blockset: A tech stack in a suit and tie
“The overlay of these core applications on Blockset allows us to provide a comprehensive and widely used offering to financial institutions from a single platform. This also allows our enterprise clients to tackle many use cases across their crypto projects with a single vendor, ”said BRD CEO Adam Traidman.
According to a press release from Blockset, the new technology stack will provide anti-money laundering (AML) guarantees, fraud detection and other compliance tools, along with adequate key management, security measures, and data feeds to match "institutions financial institutions, government agencies and cryptocurrency companies ".
According to BRD, SBI Holdings, PayPal, KPMG and Xpring, Ripple's developer firm, all participated in a private pre-release of the Blockset technology, along with sixteen other companies. BRD, which reportedly has over six million downloads and 550.000 monthly active users, "is powered by Blockset," according to the documentation.
A representative from BRD said the wallet will not use Blockset's AML and compliance features, but that Blockset will only be used to quickly sync BRD wallets with Bitcoin (and other currencies) transaction histories.
Compliance comes to encryption
BRD's new initiative is another technology stack in the rapidly growing landscape of encryption software. Previously, the Financial Action Task Force had recommended that crypto transactions adhere to the travel rule - a banking mandate in which transactions over $ 10.000 must include clearing of funding sources and payer / beneficiary identity information.
Since then, cryptocurrency companies have been looking for ways to streamline compliance tools for exchanges, brokers, service providers, and other market participants. However, critics of the travel rule have assessed whether or not it hinders the cryptocurrency business and even whether the law is sustainable on a large scale.
Perhaps, the public nature of the blockchain digital ledger will make it easier to enforce these mandates if privacy technology fails to keep up with regulatory requirements.
