Liechtenstein PM to introduce blockchain law

Adrian Hasler, Liechtenstein’s prime minister, explained this weekend why he was preparing a new blockchain law to establish a clear regulatory base for businesses developing and using the technology that supports cryptocurrency transactions.

The Blockchain Act was announced by Hasler in March, but the PM of the landlocked European microstate, explained in an interview with Cointelegraph this weekend more about the new law and its role in providing regulatory clarity to businesses using the technology.

Growth in trust

“Blockchain can serve as an important base for a variety of economic applications, covering not only payment transactions but broader financial solutions, industry use cases and general applications,” he said.

He added that blockchain technology needed a “secure connection with the physical world”, which the country aims to achieve with state regulatory oversight.

“This will create trust, which is important for blockchain businesses and citizens,” Hasler said.

Cryptocurrencies

While he admitted that cryptocurrencies could play a significant role in the future once they became more broadly accepted, he was more enthusiastic about the potential for blockchain.

“Cryptocurrencies for me represent merely a fraction of possible use cases of blockchain in a tokenised economy,” he said.

“We observe a remarkable, globally oriented, and well-educated scene that is very much involved in the advancement of blockchain technology, and we believe that we are only at the beginning of an exciting and long-term development.”

Initial coin offerings

Liechtenstein – comparative to its size and population – has become one of the favoured locations in the world for initial coin offerings, ranking at number 16 in 2017.

When asked about the reasons behind this, Hasler said the openness of the authorities and government to new technologies was most important.