World News – GB – EU to launch Blockchain regulatory sandbox by 2022 – Decrypt

The European Commission will partner with the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) to launch a new regulatory sandbox focused on cryptocurrencies and blockchain by 2022, according to an announcement released today

The commission is the executive arm of the European Union and the initiative is part of its recently adopted digital finance package which aims to provide greater clarity to cryptocurrency businesses

“By making the rules safer and more consumer-friendly, the Commission aims to boost responsible innovation in the EU financial sector, in particular for highly innovative digital start-ups, while mitigating the potential risks related to investor protection, money laundering and cybercrime ”, said the committee

According to the commission, some digital assets are already covered by European legislation, however, these rules « most often predate the emergence of crypto-assets and DLT » This could cause various obstacles in the way of innovations and make it difficult to apply existing frameworks to blockchain and cryptocurrencies in the financial sector

To address this, the commission and EBP plan to launch a new pan-European blockchain regulatory sandbox – a facility that would allow regulators, various companies and tech experts to cooperate and test innovative solutions in the blockchain sector without too much pressure from the authorities

“The pilot scheme represents a so-called ‘sandbox’ – or controlled environment – approach that allows for temporary deviations from existing rules so that regulators can gain experience in using distributed ledger technology in market infrastructures ”, noted the committee

The project will focus on use cases such as data portability, business-to-business data spaces and smart contracts, as well as digital identity, environment, mobility, energy and other key sectors Sandbox is expected to become operational in 2021-2022, the announcement added

As Decrypt reported, the commission spent the last year consulting with experts and defining digital assets to develop ‘historic’ regulations for cryptocurrencies With adoption today of the digital finance package, the committee said it had become one more step towards « paving the way for Europe to become a global standard-setter »

Blockchaincom, European Union, Cryptocurrency, European Commission, Regulation, 2022, Finance