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The ADCA or Australian Digital Commerce Association is Australia’s primary association that is tasked with promoting ethics and professionalism in the country’s digital currency market. It was established in 2014 with the initial intention of offering stakeholders in the cryptocurrency industry a forum for discussing on how to regulate this new upcoming industry. Since the debut of Bitcoin to the financial world in 2009, the growth of cryptocurrencies have surpassed all expectations. With their ever growing adoption, digital currencies are said to be disruptive to the traditional financial industry on a global scale. Formerly known as the Australian Digital Currency and Commerce Association (ADCCA), from August 2017 the name was changed to Australian Digital Commerce Association (ADCA).
show moreThe global financial ecosystem is heavily reliant on financial institutions such as banks and clearing houses and SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) to process financial transactions. Without these institutions, no monetary transfer can occur outside of the SWIFT system. However with the introduction of digital currencies, they have the effect of bypassing the SWIFT network rendering these traditional institutions obsolete. Considering the enormity of the effects of digital currencies, governments can no longer ignore the potential impact which digital currencies can impact a country’s economy. Because digital currencies are new, decentralized and unregulated, there is a high level of uncertainties surrounding the risks of cryptocurrencies usage.
The ADCA was founded to explore these issues that plague the industry. Primarily, it is tasked to develop a legal framework for regulating the industry with a focus on developing an industry standard and a code of conduct among the primary players in the Australian cryptocurrency industry.
Currently, membership to the ADCA is open to all participants in the Australian cryptocurrency industry be they traders or merchants. All members in the ADCA are required to abide by the regulatory framework that is laid out by the ADCA. Depending on the levels of compliance sought by the members, the requirements for each level of membership in the ADCA differs. At present, the type of membership at the ADCA is categorized into Industry Member or Partner Member. Overall, all members are required to meet a certain standard and continual membership to the ADCA requires demonstrations of compliance of the members to these standards.
All ADCA members are required to subscribe to a code of conduct that ensures that members do not engage in inappropriate conduct that will bring the cryptocurrency industry in disrepute. In other words, they are to act ethically by conducting their business operations in a fair and honest manner, maintain the confidentiality of their clients as well as ensuring that their actions does not result in a conflict of interest against their clients.
Other obligations for all ADCA members include:
Australia recognizes that there is a tremendous opportunity for it to be a major player in the digital currency industry. In order to promote growth in this industry, it is working closely with the Australian Government to craft out the appropriate regulatory setting for this industry.
