THE CENTRE FOR DIGITAL ASSETS & DEMOCRACY

The Centre for Digital Assets and Democracy (CDAD) believes that financial freedom and lawful financial privacy are core rights of a democracy.

Free citizens of a democracy should have private ownership and control of own assets. State involvement should be limited to protecting and enhancing this freedom and privacy.

The Centre for Digital Assets and Democracy (CDAD) has been built on the democratic principle of financial freedom and to resist attempts by the state to undermine or reduce this right.

Digital Assets

The entry of digital assets, which we use as an umbrella term including digital ledger technology and its evolutions, into the financial arena has provided opportunities for individuals and businesses to hold and control their assets with less intervention from state and financial institutions and greater privacy. A key example of this is bitcoin.

While bad actors are portrayed as the only beneficiaries of this new asset class, this is only part of the picture.

Less attention has been given to thinking about how this asset class can enhance financial freedom, increase prosperity, defend lawful financial privacy and enable us to prosper. CDAD aims to educate, debate and inform on these issues.

We work with the state and financial institutions to actively participate in exchange of information and the development of ideas that will allow citizens to prosper and the United Kingdom to become a leading jurisdiction for digital, financial innovation.

Our People

Claire Cummings

Founder and CEO

Claire Cummings is a leading solicitor specialising in crypto law and regulation. She is the founder of The Centre for Digital Assets and Democracy and the founder and managing partner of the law firm Cummings Pepperdine LLP, a London legal firm at the forefront of the crypto and blockchain revolution.

Claire is on the advisory boards of a crypto exchange and a strategic communications firm specialising in digital assets, blockchain, Web3 and AI and the main board of an NFT firm. She is also the legal practitioner on the Forum for Digital Currencies and has acted as part of the Global Digital Finance working group on stablecoins. Claire has also acted as compliance officer, MLRO and director of an FCA regulated fund manager and qualified under SIB to trade derivatives.

As a leading expert in crypto, Claire is a sought after speaker and has published multiple articles on the legal and regulatory issues surrounding cryptocurrencies and the crypto eco-system. Claire was named as a Top Influencer in London for hedge funds (2&20) in 2022 and 2023 and in 2022 was included in the CityWealth Crypto Top 100. Claire is a CityWealth Woman of the Year 2023 and the Cummings Pepperdine Crypto Questions Podcast is a winner of the CityWealth Podcast of the Year 2023.

Jennifer Ewing

Chief Strategy Officer

Jennifer has several decades of experience in emerging markets equity sales & trading where she worked in New York and London at investment banks ING, Dresdner and Wood & Company.

Since leaving “trad-fi”, Jennifer has been active in the digital asset space and has become a strong advocate for financial freedom. She is a Strategic Advisor to Bitcoin Policy UK and The Centre for Digital Assets and Democracy.

Recently Jennifer joined Blockchain.com – one of the oldest crypto platforms in the world – where she leads Institutional Business Development for EMEA.

Jennifer was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and Carmel-by-the-Sea and has lived in West London since 2001.

Dr David McGrogan

David Dr McGrogan is a Fellow of the Centre for Digital Assets and Democracy. David’s work will explain in detail why CBDCs are a danger to democracy and a threat to financial freedom.

David is a leading scholar of human rights, public law and regulation, the law of contract, and legal theory. Already widely published in prestigious legal journals, in 2019 he also won the International Society of Public Law’s ICON Prize. He is currently both an Associate Professor of Law at Northumbria Law School, and Director of Postgraduate Research for the Faculty of Business & Law at Northumbria University. He is also a Fellow of the Knapp Foundation and runs a major international research network, on Critical Theory and Conservative Thought.

Before entering academia he worked in the commercial world, experience which informs his current work. He was a legal translator in Japanese-English specialising in company law, commercial law, consumer credit regulation, and financial regulation with an emphasis on financial regulation.

Francesca Crachilova

Francesca Crachilova is a Junior Fellow of the Centre for Digital Assets and Democracy. Her work focusses on the benefits of Bitcoin with an emphasis on our spearhead campaign, “Bitcoin for Liberty.

Francesca was a key contributor at our inaugural event in October 2023 where she discussed the prize-winning essay she wrote at 13 – “A Digital Democracy” – on leveraging blockchain in modern voting systems.

As well as winning a number of prizes in maths, Francesca is also recognized as one of the top debaters in the UK and stands out as one of the youngest members ever to join the prestigious Team England Debate. At just 16, she made history as the youngest champion to win both the Oxford and Cambridge University debate competitions.

Francesca’s interests include quantum computing, neuromorphic artificial intelligence, photonics-based communication technologies and philosophy.