BIGG Digital Assets (BIGG.C) subsidiary Blockchain Intelligence Group partnered with Canadian crypto-asset focused fintech firm, Brane Capital, today, according to a press release.

The partnership will field custodianship for cryptoassets accompanied by continuous address monitoring for financial institutions. This will help institutions and law enforcement agencies track the flow of cryptocurrency along the individual blockchains, effectively closing the gaps between government, banks and the blockchain industry.

“Brane Capital is uniquely positioned to help BIG expand our products and services in the crypto custody services space. This collaboration helps financial institutions and law enforcement agencies protect the crypto industry and ensure compliance under the current regulations. The custody solution Brane Capital has built allows for secure custody with built-in secure emergency protocols,” said Lance Morginn, president of Blockchain Intelligence Group.

Regulations are coming

The anarcho-capitalist types are likely off their rockers with their suggestion that Bitcoin and other cryptoassets will displace fiat currency and undermine government controls. These theories are usually coming from people who carry around the neoliberal derived ethos that the word government is synonymous with the word inefficient. Any economics prof will tell you that government invention creates inefficiencies in the market, but as for overall efficiency of government? It’s a mixed bag.

But since we’re chatting about ideological perspectives—how about the idea that if there’s a market niche to be filled, some enterprising rational actor will find a way to fill it? Well. The government doesn’t need to regulate cryptoassets, because the private sector is more than happy to do it for them. Self-regulation is often harsher and more critical than what the government would implement, and that’s where firms like Blockchain Intelligence Group come in.

Regardless of whether or not it’s an overvalued mess, the Coinbase Global (COIN.Q) direct listing introduced an all new era for cryptocurrency. Governments of the world are going to be scrutinizing every facet of the nascent industry, even moreso than they are now, and doing what they can to gain some modicum of control. Even if it means rewriting a few rules.

BIG’s compliance suite platform will improve upon compliance capabilities for financial institutions and law enforcement customers by giving them a platform to watch exchange-flows on a number of different blockchains. Brane Capital’s vault protection protocol gives the account holder the ability to secure a wide range of cryptos with one step in the case of a security breach, hack or unexpected loss of an authority holder. This stops the Quadriga CX effect.

Quadriga CX

If you’re new to cryptocurrency, Quadriga CX was a Vancouver B.C.-based cryptocurrency exchange dealing regularly with high value clients that went belly up when its CEO, by all accounts an affable sort named Gerry Cotten, took the account passwords with him to India, and promptly died from Crohn’s Disease. Still, this was the functional equivalent of an individual crypto-owner losing their private key and being unable to access their cryptocurrency, except on a macro scale.

This naturally gave way to a number of different conspiracy theories, especially after it turned out the Quadriga cold wallets were empty and more than 75,000 Quadriga users were screwed out of a quarter of a billion dollars. It’s been the stuff of urban legends that Cotten’s still out there living on some private island, bought with ill-gotten crypto-gains from raiding his own vaults and faking his own death, having come a long way from his humble roots in Belleville, Ontario. (Where as it turns out the author is also from: Gerry, call me!) Get a little deeper into this guy’s story, and it begins to read like a David Baldacci novel—albeit, a good one—complete with third-act plot hook where the guy is still alive. Unfortunately, we’ll never get that far in this particular tale and a judicious application of Ochams Razour suggests that he’s probably dead.

Regardless of plot twists and the potential international conspiracies, Quadriga has gone down in crypto-history as one of those emblematic cases of the inherent problem with unregulated cryptocurrency, right next to Mt. Gox and Silk Road. It’s also one of the real reasons why we’re in dire need of regulation for this industry, because as it turns out, the public sector may produce inefficiencies, but if you want downright larceny and human stupidity, you gotta go private and unregulated.

BIGG wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again by enduring that more than one person has controls to the vault. Good deal!

Crypto for Law Enforcement

And cops need a place to liquidate any seized crypto without having to go through an auction. BIGG has their own exchange.  It’s legal, regulated with know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) protocols in place, and it’s called Netcoins. The offering will give law enforcement and financial institutions the ability to monitor high-risk addresses using their QLUE platform. The QLUE platform is one BIGG has been licensing out to government interests for years now, and has enjoyed some success before in tracking down crypto ne’er do wells.

“This partnership and its combined capabilities further enhances Brane’s turnkey custody solution, and closes the gap on crypto compliance for our institutional clients. These additional capabilities enable Brane to bring a truly standout offering to the Canadian and global markets, and will establish our leadership position in digital asset custody services,” said Jerome Dwight, Brane president and former CEO of Bank of New York Mellon Canada.

Who needs regulations?

BIGG Digital Assets was down $0.35 today and closed at $2.57.

—Joseph Morton