Bitcoin Global News (BGN)
September 10, 2018 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- What would be the
effect of requiring ICOs to have a passport to the EU in order to
do business there?
Reportedly, a member of the
European Parliament named Ashley Fox organized a meeting last
Tuesday in order to speak with other lawmakers on the topic of ICO
regulation.
The conclusions from this meeting
were unique, to say the least.
What came out of it was a
structured proposal that has been termed an ICO passport, which
echoes a bit of the sentiment that BitLicense had. In the minds of
the regulators, this “passport,” would streamline the process of
running an ICO in the European Union as well as greatly minimize
the instances of scams.
In the minds of average Crypto
investors, it is easy to see this as a set of barriers which might
stifle innovation.
Once you understand the specifics
of Fox’s ICO passport, then it could be easier to understand where
the truth of this proposal lies. According to a recent article by
Coindesk on this subject, the key provisions include: limiting the
funds that ICOs can raise to 8 million euros, making compliance
with know-your-customer and anti-money laundering rules mandatory,
and providing the ICOs involved with legally backed access to every
member country in the European Union.
Fox attempted to elaborate on this
by stating that all of this together would make every ICO
completely transparent to the public and lawmakers as well as
establish a regulatory framework for running ICOs that involve
member countries.
What was perhaps even more
interesting was that Fox seemed to suggest that his framework would
not be mandatory, at least at first. In the Coindesk piece, he said
that as time goes on, companies might essentially voluntarily sign
up for the regulatory framework. In attempting to explain why this
would happen, Fox claimed that because the framework will exist, no
benefits will exist for ICOs that try to remain outside of it and
do business inside of the EU.
In truth, however, his rationale
for this was simply that as of now, every EU country has separate
laws related to ICOs. Saying this, however, does not prove that his
idea will be accepted as a blanket solution by the governments of
every EU participant.
In the end, only time will tell
whether this solution pushes ICOs out of the EU, or, on the other
hand, encourages healthy innovation within the EU.
By: BGN Editorial Staff
News:
EU
ICO
Regulation
Cryptocurrencies