Law Decoded: Police and thieves on their screens, Oct 2-9

Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week's critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law.

Just as new linking technologies like the telegraph and the steam engine aided and abetted new networks of political deplorables and any number of Sherlock Holmes plots, the explosion of communications tech of the last quarter-century has brought about new forms of crime.

Law enforcement's interest in controlling new networks also grows.

In crypto, several jurisdictions have laid claim to new authority, with the DoJ in particular making a number of moves to expand its jurisdiction.

The Justice Department's new "Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework" laid claim to a whole host of powers over crypto businesses that had previously been in limbo.

The new framework heralds a new era in the department's crypto authority, but it's just the clearest summary of a growing body of precedent that U.S. regulators from the SEC to the IRS have been building out for years.

With its focus on retail investors the FCA has obviously designed its new ban to be more of a protective maneuver for regular Britons rather than a handicap on the reigning heavyweight champs of the London Stock Exchange.

As the UK's position within both Europe and the global economy is vulnerable, implementing a stringent ban on a new asset class seems like yet another way of recusing itself from the financial future.

As mentioned earlier, determined UK crypto investors will almost certainly be able to get around the new ban to access offshore exchanges with less legal accountability to the UK and more extravagant and risky leveraged offerings.

The Bank for International Settlements put out a new and extensive report on Central Bank Digital Currencies and the associated risks and prospects.