Australia regulates cryptography in payment industry review | Cryptography

The move is the latest effort by the country to maintain the power of technology companies.

Australia will create a licensing framework for cryptocurrency exchanges and will consider launching the digital currency of the central retail bank as part of the largest quarter-century payment industry review.

The country will also extend its payment laws to cover online transaction providers like Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. and Google-now-pay-for-sale (BNPL) providers like Afterpay Ltd, ending direct unsupervised operation.

“If we do not reform the current framework, it will be Silicon Valley that will determine the future of our payment system,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said in a statement to Reuters. “Australia must maintain its sovereignty over our payment system.”

The Australian Conservative coalition government has been at the forefront global efforts to sustain large technology companies as he prepares for the federal elections next May.

Liberal-national governmentst, which in most polls is behind the left-wing Labor Party, already this year Big Tech is paying media companies for content and taking legal responsibility for defamation on their platforms.

(Do you mean liberal national government?)

The government will begin early next year to establish a licensing framework for digital exchanges in a regulated environment that would allow consumers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, Frydenberg said in a prepared statement.

There would also be a consultation on the regulatory regime for companies with cryptocurrencies on behalf of consumers, and on the viability of the central bank’s digital currency, he added, with advice to be provided by the end of 2022.

“Consumer benefits”

Australian banks and other players in the payments industry have long campaigned to apply the rules to all parties involved in transactions.

A spokesman for Afterpay, Square Inc, the payment company of Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter Inc., agreed with a purchase, saying it “supports any approach that takes into account Afterpay’s innovation and consumer benefits from the market.”

Spokesmen for Apple and Google were not immediately available for comment.