Crypto and Blockchain: regulation is becoming a priority for the European Union
The European Commission, in collaboration with the 30-nation European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) alliance, plans to launch a pan-European blockchain regulatory restricted area by 2022.
According to an update on the official website of the commission’s Digital Innovation and Blockchain team on September 23, the European Commission will work with EBP in the sandbox to test use cases for blockchain and digital assets in the European Blockchain services infrastructure, or EBSI. EBSI is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the EBP that aims to provide cross-border digital public services across the EU using blockchain technology.
The Digital Innovation and Blockchain team also mentioned that the commission was paying special attention to the development of a regulatory framework that will support the digitization of assets through tokenization and also smart contracts.
According to the commission, some digital assets already fall under EU law, however, these rules “most often predate the emergence of crypto-assets and DLT”. This could result in several obstacles in the way of innovations and make it difficult to apply existing structures for blockchain and cryptocurrencies in the financial sector.
To remedy this, the commission and EBP plan to launch a new pan-European blockchain regulatory environment – an installation that would allow regulators, various companies, and technology experts to cooperate and test innovative solutions in the blockchain industry without much pressure from the authorities.
This comes just a week after reports of the European Union’s plans to establish a regulatory framework by 2024 to promote the adoption of blockchain and digital assets in the financial sector.
