The government of Switzerland has announced that it will create legal environment for the blockchain industry. The strategy aims to position Switzerland as a major blockchain “destination” and a blockchain-friendly jurisdiction.
According to Swissinfo, the major focus of the blockchain strategy is for the government to introduce decentralized digital tokens across the business sector, especially in the financial one. One of the ideas is to get rid of regulatory “burdens” when trading different financial securities such as bonds and shares through blockchain platforms. In this way, a new regulation can be created, similar to the latest laws regarding the fintech industry, which actually allows many different tech startups with finance focus to perform financial activities without the need of a banking license. This is a huge disruption and regulation when it comes to the blockchain and fintech industries.
According to the report published by the Federal Council in Switzerland, the distributed ledger technology and blockchain are some of the most remarkable and promising developments when it comes to digitalization.
The report also states the major issues when introducing blockchain into a legal environment. One is the fact that most digital tokens are not really supported by any tangible assets, such as government money. The law for this needs to be changed and to be applied only to digital assets.
The report also suggests that Switzerland is cautious about money laundering and terrorist financing issues, many of which are “supported” by cryptocurrencies and blockchain. So, the Swiss government, while opening itself for further digitalization and support of DLT and blockchain, remains cautious over the lingering issues these new technologies face, especially when applied in the financial sector.