Metamask users in Nigeria can now directly and instantly buy crypto assets within the mobile app, Consensys and its Web3 infrastructure partner Moonpay have said. According to a Consensys executive, rolling out this feature helps to reduce friction while bringing down barriers that block or stop Nigerians from embracing Web3.

Purchasing Crypto via Instant Bank Transfers

Consensys, one of the leading Web3 firms, has said users of the Metamask wallet in Nigeria can now directly purchase crypto assets within the mobile app. To help it make this possible, Consensys partnered with the Web3 infrastructure company Moonpay. The addition of this feature allows users from the country to purchase crypto assets without having to set up accounts with centralized crypto exchanges.

In a March 21 joint statement, Consensys said the decision to enable direct purchases had been prompted by the very high number of declined or blocked transactions when the method of payment is a credit or debit card. However, using this recently added feature, Metamask users can now use instant bank transfers to purchase crypto within the mobile app and the portfolio dapp (decentralized application).

Simplifying User Experience

Commenting on the addition of the new feature to the wallet, Lorenzo Santos, the senior product manager at Metamask, noted:

This is an essential next step in a critical market that has embraced crypto and Web3 but faces serious challenges when using [the] fiat to crypto on-ramp. We are reducing friction and bringing down barriers to keep supporting Nigerians as they onboard into Web3.

Zeeshan Feroz, the chief product & strategy officer of Moonpay, said the integration makes it possible for Nigerians to fund their self-custody wallet through what he described as “a simplified user experience.”

Meanwhile, the statement also revealed that Consensys and its partner plan to roll out this feature in Kenya, Botswana, and South Africa in the coming month.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Following finder.com’s reports on bitcoin and ethereum predictions, the product comparison site polled 56 specialists in the fintech and cryptocurrency industry to gauge their thoughts on future regulation of crypto exchanges. The experts predict that virtual currency trading platforms will be regulated, but not until 2025 or 2030. When regulation does occur, 76% of Finder’s panelists expect the trading platforms to be treated similarly to traditional financial institutions.

87% of Finder’s Fintech and Crypto Experts Believe Exchanges Must Disclose Proof-of-Reserves Audits

A recently published report from finder.com, which polled 56 experts in the fintech and cryptocurrency industry, shows that 87% believe exchanges will need to disclose proof-of-reserves audits and liability records. The specialists reveal that standard regulations for crypto exchanges will not occur until 2025 or 2030.

While 76% of the panelists believe crypto trading platforms will be regulated similarly to traditional finance platforms, 17% expect this to happen by 2024. 22% predict regulation by 2025, and 35% expect it to take place in 2030.

“Any exchanges that remain need to get with the program, proof of reserves and liabilities should be prerequisites and non-negotiable for people selecting where they trade,” Swyftx’s head of strategy Tommy Honan said.

Honan believes, alongside 87% of the panelists, that exchanges need to provide a record of liabilities and proof-of-reserves. “Exchanges also need to continue to upskill their users on self-custody and lean into new and innovative products that support it,” Honan added.

Split Views on Crypto Regulation: 15% Buck Tradition, Half Believe Industry Will Weather the Storm

About 15% of Finder’s panel, including Cryptoconsultz CEO Nicole DeCicco, do not believe crypto exchanges should be regulated similarly to traditional financial institutions. However, DeCicco predicts that standard regulations will be enforced throughout the crypto industry by 2024.

“It’s imperative though we warn investors about the risks involved,” DeCicco said in a statement. “At Cryptoconsultz we teach our clients to think of cold storage and self-custody solutions as their bank account and centralized exchanges similar to the money one might pull out of an ATM and walk around with in their pocket,” the executive added.

Approximately 42% of Finder’s experts believe that the number of customers for crypto exchanges will continue to decline following several bankruptcies in the industry, including the FTX collapse. 84% of the panelists emphasized that the cryptocurrency industry will survive the FTX implosion that occurred in November 2022.

42.31% predict that more crypto trading platforms will go bankrupt due to customer losses, with more than 15% thinking this will happen in five years and 26.92% within a year. However, exactly half of Finder’s panelists believe that no such event will occur.

You can check out Finder’s crypto exchange regulation prediction report in its entirety here.

What do you think about the predictions of Finder’s experts on the future of crypto exchanges? Do you agree or disagree with their views on regulation and the potential impact on the industry? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Since people are once again talking about self-custody as one of crypto’s unique strengths, I would like to remind everyone about an equally important fundamental value proposition of crypto that, in the early days, was touted as the killer feature. I’m talking about censorship resistance.

The following opinion editorial was written by Bitcoin.com CEO Dennis Jarvis.

The Three Pillars of Censorship Resistance

In the financial context, censorship resistance is the ability to carry out financial actions despite the wishes of any third party.

In crypto, the three pillars of censorship resistance are:

1. The freedom to transact. This means third parties cannot prevent you from sending or receiving assets.
2. The freedom from confiscation. Third parties cannot take away or freeze your assets.
3. The immutability of transactions. It is impossible for third parties to change or revert transactions after the fact.

Troubling actions increasingly taken by centralized entities in the public and private sector demonstrate the importance of censorship resistance. Let’s look at some examples:

Public Sector Censorship

Governments have shown an increased willingness to exert control of financial institutions while also ratcheting up their crypto regulatory efforts. Earlier in the year, Trudeau’s Canadian government took the unprecedented step of invoking emergency powers to freeze or suspend the bank accounts of Canadian citizens without court orders. Their crime? Donating funds to fellow citizens participating in the Freedom Convoy protests.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s watchdog the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) made headlines this summer by banning and sanctioning addresses that used Tornado Cash, a decentralized application that improved privacy for users by “mixing” ETH.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) increased crypto regulatory actions, best exemplified by this quote from SEC Chairman Gary Gensler who said, “…the SEC will serve as the cop on the beat. As with seat belts in cars, we need to ensure that investor protections come standard in the crypto market.” This isn’t merely empty rhetoric, the SEC nearly doubled the size of the Division of Enforcement’s Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit in 2022.

Private Sector Censorship

Post-merge, a majority of Ethereum’s blocks are compliant with OFAC. This is a potential problem because OFAC-compliant relays will not include any transactions that interact with the Tornado Cash smart contract or other sanctioned wallet addresses as designated by OFAC. Not all blocks built by OFAC compliant relays are censoring, however, all blocks built by OFAC compliant relays will censor when non-compliant transactions are broadcast to the network. As Martin Köppelmann, the co-founder of Gnosis, noted about the state of OFAC compliant relays, “[t]his means if the censoring validators would now stop attesting to non-censoring blocks they would eventually form the canonical, 100% censoring chain.”

Centralized stablecoin companies Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC) have a history of cooperating with law enforcement requests to freeze assets. Circle complied with OFAC’s Tornado Cash sanctions by banning “tainted” USDC. So far Tether has decided to not comply, but that can change (and probably will, given sufficient pressure) in the future.

Outside of crypto, Paypal made international news when it released an updated policy that let Paypal fine users $2,500 for spreading ‘misinformation.’ Paypal quickly retracted the policy in public, though much of the language remains. This includes $2,500 fines that have existed since September 2021 for the very vague “promotion of hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory…”

While Paypal was almost universally condemned, its actions are consistent with a growing number of web2 companies, such as Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook, who are using their platforms to punish behavior they deem “bad” through levers like demonetization, suspensions, and bans.

Censorship Resistance Is the Antidote

Censorship resistance is one of the main value propositions of decentralized finance in general and Bitcoin specifically because it fundamentally separates the technology from any traditional financial tools. In fact, censorship resistance is so strong in Bitcoin as to render it an economic freedom enhancing technology. This dramatization powerfully demonstrates why:

The silver lining to the concerning increase in authoritarian actions from both the public and private sector is that they are helping refocus attention on censorship resistance.

Bitcoin, once the embodiment of crypto, had become ridiculed as worse than boring — antiquated. It’s nice to see this begin to shift back as people inside and out of crypto reacquaint themselves with its deceptively simple power.

Within the crypto industry, more people are paying attention to the slow creep of web2-like features of speed and cheap transactions that are coming at the cost of censorship resistance. For example, prominent developers like the aforementioned Martin Köppelmann are sounding the alarms that the percentage of OFAC compliant blocks needs to be fixed. It’s also nice to see debates about censorship resistance begin to take up more oxygen within the broader crypto community. I particularly enjoyed Erik Voorhees’ piece on the empowering nature of defi.

This is not to say that all crypto projects need to be censorship resistant; indeed censorship resistance itself exists on a spectrum. Yet it is vital that some crypto projects remain robustly censorship resistant. At Bitcoin.com, we are proud to offer tools like the Bitcoin.com Wallet, that anyone can use to self-custody their Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. As an industry, let’s take the events of the last year to remember how important censorship resistance is. Let’s not sacrifice this industry-defining attribute for short sighted gains.

What are your thoughts on this story? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.