We built compliance systems to fight financial crime. Instead, we created honeypots.

In this conversation, Beth Haddock — General Counsel at AdvisorEngine, board director at GMO-Z Trust (a NY-regulated stablecoin issuer), and policy lead at The Stablecoin Standard — breaks down what's broken with legacy compliance and the emerging framework to fix it.

The Stablecoin Standard just released a white paper that regulators actually asked for: "Programmable Compliance for Digital Money and Assets." We dig into the core ideas:

→ Why the "consent" model in financial services is a fallacy
→ How data collection meant to reduce risk creates new risk (the honeypot problem)
→ The 4-layer compliance taxonomy: Prevent, Detect, Trace, Protect
→ Why no single RegTech vendor covers all four — and what that means for builders
→ The critical distinction between AML and cybersecurity (and why conflating them is dangerous)
→ How AI changes the compliance paradigm without replacing compliance officers
→ What Beth is advocating for in the GENIUS Act and global policy discussions

If you're in fintech, compliance, RegTech, or digital assets — or just trying to understand where financial infrastructure is heading — this one's for you.

References:

Programmable Compliance for Digital Money and Assets- https://www.stablecoinstandard.com/wh...
Trust Without Intermediaries: A Programmable Risk Management Framework for the Future - 30 Oct 2025 by Jessi Brooks, Ribbit Capital and Katherine Kirkpatrick StarkWare https://buff.ly/FT9zDZ0

BIO -Beth Haddock / bethhaddock is a strategic advisor, General Counsel, and board member with a track record of helping fintech and digital asset companies execute on growth, innovation, and regulatory complexity. She currently leads legal and compliance at AdvisorEngine, a Franklin Templeton-backed platform, and advises top DeFi projects and Web3 ventures including Grayscale, Balancer, and Orca.

Beth serves on the board of GMO-Z Trust Company, a NYDFS-regulated stablecoin issuer, and helps shape global policy through The Stablecoin Standard - https://www.stablecoinstandard.com/. With 25+ years of experience across firms like Guggenheim, Brown Brothers Harriman, and AXA, she brings hands-on legal and strategic support to companies scaling new products, entering new markets, or managing regulatory inflection points.

A frequent speaker, CoinDesk contributor, and