There is tension today between "rule of law" and "rule of code" as technology disrupts traditional ways of working.
So said Pindar Wong, chairman of financial tech consultancy VeriFi (Hong Kong), during remarks at a European Parliament event on the subject of blockchain technology in Brussels today.
The informal event brought together a range of experts and stakeholders from both the bitcoin and blockchain industry, as well as government representatives, to investigate the topic.
The gathering was hosted by MEP Marietje Schaake of the Netherlands, in cooperation with COALA (Coalition of Automated Legal Applications) and the Dynamic Coalition on Blockchain Technologies at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).
The workshop featured two sessions. The first offered an overview of how the technology works and its potential applications. Later, attendees examined possible regulatory approaches to blockchain tech.
The event comes amid a time of growing activity on the subject of bitcoin and blockchain within elements of the European Union governance structure. The European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) held a hearing in January and later released a report calling for a dedicated task force focused on digital currencies.
Both the European Commission , the executive arm of the European Union, and the European Council , composed of the bloc’s heads of state as well as representatives from the Commission, are also moving to establish policies on the technology over the course of this year.
Notably, some of those present at the event pushed to bring credence to the idea that regulation of distributed ledgers could, in fact, be accomplished through the code itself, rather than a top-down approach from one agency or another. Blockchains in governance In his opening comments, Wong referred to blockchain tech as a "platform for innovation", spelling out its advantages as money you can program. The transparent and verifiable transfer […]
