On June 29, 2017, the German Blockchain Federal Association held a meeting to agree on fundamental requirements for facilitating a pro-blockchain political agenda. According to the release, the committee sees the potential for blockchain technology to transform infrastructural economic innovations. As per the association:
“The potential of blockchain technology can only develop when citizens, as well as private and public institutions, connect with the technology and the technology itself is recognized by law and society.”
As a result, the association aims to make the following suggestions to the succeeding government body in order to encourage innovation within the German economy:
1.Establishing regulation that bolsters innovation in the fields of civil law and taxation in order to enable Germany to be an economic leader within the blockchain ecosystem.
2.The association will also encourage use of blockchain technology within the public sector:
By 2020, the association aims to have launched at least one blockchain-based public register.
Obtain state-recognition of trust services, time services, identity services, and electronic signatures as currently defined in eIDAS Regulation.
Provide legally suggested interfaces for electronic data transmission and provision.
3.Increase the promotion of blockchain technology in science education.
4.Establish a Blockchain Inquiry Commission to examine how the democratic legal state can be transformed by blockchain technology and assist the country with integrating into the digital age.
The announcement of Germany’s Blockchain Association comes after Dr. Jens Weidmann, President of Deutsche Bundesbank, remarked in March that digitalization of the German financial market could deliver the country a “wealth of benefits.” However, despite his later claim that digitization “will spawn new forms of financial intermediation,” in a June speech to the Bundesbank Policy Symposium, Weidmann asserted that the idea of privately issued digital currencies by central banks is overblown and the banks should be more concerned with monetary policy, as they “are better able to deliver price stability than a rigid monetary rule or an algorithm.”