- Gibraltar: New Guidelines for ICOs and Blockchain!
- From October: Stronger monitoring of Japan's Crypto Exchanges!
- BlockLab a Project of the City of Rotterdam and the Port Authority!
- Lisk is rebranding - Great Opportunity?
The Financial Services Commission of the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar has announced its intention to promptly discuss new regulatory measures for Gibraltar-based crypto exchanges. At the same time, the use of ICOs is to be considered. This is clear from a statement from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC).
In a statement of 22 September, the Commission stated that the GFSC had noticed an increased use of tokens or coins based on the Distributed Ledger technology, which was used to collect money at early stages to finance a start-up. A new regulatory framework will now govern the activities of companies operating in or from Gibraltar starting from January 2018 and operating their business on the basis of a DLT application, such as the trading of crypto currencies. Also the announcement and sale of tokens (Token Sales) is to be surrounded by a regulatory framework.
The reason for the announced regulatory measure is that Gibraltar considers itself a location where it is pleasant and safe to do business. ICOs are hitherto an unregulated means of collecting funds to finance projects whose contribution to social progress and their commercial success can not be predicted. In addition, ICOs are a popular way to circumvent the classic regulated ways of using venture capital or financial institutions to get money.
The GFSC said that only experienced investors, who have dealt with the project to be financed in detail, take the risk and invest in fresh ICOs.
The Commission also wrote:
Last month, various Financial Services Commissions had decided to release similar warnings about ICOs. As reported, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) spoke of "highly risky, speculative investments" with regard to ICOs. Regulatory announcements by the relevant authorities have already been stated in the USA, South Korea, Singapore, the People's Republic of China, Canada, Malaysia and Russia. In China, the government went a step further and forbade the funding method entirely. This had a major impact on start-ups in this sector.
Despite the admonitory words, Gibraltar's interest in the blockchain is still unbroken. The Gibraltar exchange continues to strive to integrate the blockchain into its trading system.
The Japanese financial market regulation authority FSA will be more likely to deal with Japan's crypto exchanges from the beginning of next month. This is apparent from a report by the Japan Times.
According to the report, increased control should ensure that companies active in the crypto market adhere to the established rules of the Japanese market. The primary aim is to control the observance of the law on the regulation of digital currencies, which was adopted at the beginning of the year. It introduced rules to prevent crypto currencies and their trading on exchanges from being used for money laundering and thus being involved in criminal trafficking. In addition, the Know-Your-Customer-Principle (KYC) has set a standard which leads to an annual audit. The same law had also officially declared Bitcoin in Japan officially as the legal means of payment.
Now the FSA wants to get a more detailed overview of the strict applications of this law. This included corresponding internal systems to ensure the protection of customer assets. It also checks whether vendors can keep their assets independent of their own assets and whether they can adequately respond to cyber attacks.
"We want to maintain and regulate the market," an official of the FSA is quoted. "This ensures a healthy market development." According to the report, there are over 20 crypto exchanges in Japan, which will have to be stricter controls from October. To this end, a 30-man-strong supervisory team was already set up in the last month, consisting, among other things, of employees from various agencies and the financial services office, which are said to have a great deal of experience.
The Dutch city of Rotterdam, which also houses the largest seaport in Europe, has opened the so-called BlockLab to investigate the blockchain technology.
The BlockLab is a joint project of the City of Rotterdam and the Port Authority. Blockchain is to be examined by the project for its potential for the administration and logistics of the port. In addition, the use of applied research is intended to record shiploads more efficiently.
In a statement to the project it is said that a blockchain app is first published. This was developed in collaboration with Exact and the bank ABN AMRO and is intended to support the inventory financing of the logistics sector.
Maarten Struijvenberg, Economic Commissioner, said about the project:
In addition, the blockchain is to support the energy supply contract of the port and the city of Rotterdam. Thus, companies will be able to offer residual heat and consumer electricity on a blockchain-based market.
However, the BlockLab is by no means the first advance of Rotterdam into the world of blockchain technology. Already last year the port had participated in a blockchain consortium. At that time, 14 universities and banks had also investigated the possibilities of the blockchain to improve logistics.
On the weekend, the team from Lisk gave details about the rebranding on his blog. Currently, co-founder Max Kordek and marketing lead Thomas Schouten are on a journey through Asia, China, South Korea, Japan and India - a great opportunity?
Image based on data from blog.lisk.io
LSK
In the meantime, Ethereum and NEO are known as smart-contract platforms for most crypto-enthusiasts. Ethereum will have soon the next hard fork with the upcoming Metropolis upgrade and NEO gained an incredible price explosion after its rebranding of AntShares.
Both platforms carry out smart contracts, but there is a gap for newcomers, which is difficult to overcome: A new programming language must be learned for Ethereum's smart contracts.
Here comes the great advantage for Lisk (LSK) in the game. The Lisk Blockchain is based on the widely known JavaScript programming language, which will facilitate the transition to the blockchain world for programmers and beginners.
Rebranding
Together with Rlevance, Lisk has presented a rebranding strategy. The brand consulting company has already worked with well-known companies such as Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft and easyJet.
Already since the middle of the year, the company had been working on the so-called "strategy phase" in which a (re) positioning of Lisk was aimed. Since July to September a development of the design was carried out as well as close cooperation of the design agency Taikonauten implemented. The work on website, new logo and other products should continue until the end of September.
Image based on data from blog.lisk.io
After the design work, front-end developers of Taikonauts and Lisk will bring a fresh wind into the Smart Contract Token.
In the light of current developments, it is easy to remember the rebranding of AntShares and the associated price changes. The big difference, however, is that Lisk can look back on a much more mature and older story.
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