Members of the EU Parliament in Strasbourg don’t seem to be finding consensus concerning the blockchain and cryptocurrencies regulations, which have long been a topic of heated discussions. cryptonews.com has reported that such areas as smart contracts and other related to the world of blockchain are being carefully studied in order to achieve common ground on whether they must be regulated. The Romanian and French representatives are actually supportive of the laissez-fare approach and reject the need for drafting specific legislation. In fact, this might be a sound decision to observe the development and maturity process of the technology in the next few years, and then come back to the question about regulations. The biggest negative consequence that a strict regulatory framework could have in the present is the slowing down of innovation, as the adoption and implementation of distributed ledger technologies are viewed as key drivers of the process. Different areas of human activity could potentially benefit from the emerging technologies and the main goal is to create an environment where this would be possible. Being innovation friendly is one of the fundamental principles that could bring Europe to the next step of evolution, making it the global leader in this sphere.

Yet, we cannot close our eyes on the problems that could appear and disrupt the process. For instance, distributed ledger technology and the financial instruments that are based on it are not seen as very transparent by the general public. Besides, if data becomes not centralized it might be challenging to deal with such issues as taxation and crime prevention. In order to prevent and mitigate this, blockchain technology developers must take lead in the mission of educating the society about it and gradually rising the support for it in the public mindset. The conventional beliefs and practices have reached their expiration date and must be replaced by the new developments that will change our lives once and for ever.

However, politicians should also consider that at the end of the day, they might not have much voice and influence on the rapid development of cryptocurrencies. Therefore, the actions they take and the legislation they draft may not have much effect on the real position of things. This is mainly due to the mobility of crypto projects, meaning their ability to be moved across jurisdictions to find the one with the most favorable environment.

The Bank for International Settlements has suggested that international coordination is the only strategy that can be successful in regulating the cryptocurrency market, due to the global nature of the phenomenon. In any case, it would not be the right choice to disregard blockchain and pretend it does not have the influence that it does. Nevertheless, it is not a simple task to create a legislation that would be suitable and effective, so the European Commission is not rushing with it so far.