Eva Kaili Offers Sprouts of Hope For Blockchain in Brussels
February 10, 2019 by Paul de Havilland
According to a recent company blog post, Ripple could have found an ally in Eva Kaili for regulatory clarity in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries. At least in Europe.
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Ripple Regionals Conference Finds a Positive Response From the E.U.
Newly appointment member of the E.U. parliament, Greek politician Eva Kaili, has expressed an intention to provide the industry with accommodations that would help smooth blockchain adoption in Europe.
Her enthusiasm for blockchain has taken some in the establishment off-guard, and her presence at the recent Ripple Regionals conference in London was met with skepticism by industry representatives. But Kaili sent positive signals to the largely tech-related audience:
“I believed that if we were not positive, the resistance of the traditional players would only increase and could even kill a technology that had so much potential for good.”
Fewer Regulatory Barriers, Not More
This new positive approach to blockchain technology is a welcomed about-face. Institutional players in Europe, spanning banks and governments, had shown a reluctance toward the industry. Eva Kaili, however, has always been cut from a different cloth.
The Greek MEP has been at the forefront of efforts to bring a continent-wide regulatory approach to the sector for a number of years. Only last year, Kaili put forward a motion for a resolution for the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) to examine both distributed ledger technology and virtual assets.
The language of her motion–the full text of which is beyond the scope of this article–is highly encouraging for blockchain enthusiasts. It calls on the commission to explore the opportunity to embrace blockchain insofar as:
“Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and blockchain can constitute a tool that promotes the empowerment of citizens by giving them the opportunity to control their own data and decide what data to share in the ledger, as well as the capacity to choose who else can see them… DLT is a general-purpose technology which can improve transaction cost efficiency by removing intermediaries and intermediation costs, as well as increasing transaction transparency, also reshaping value chains and improving organisational efficiency through trustworthy decentralisation.”
What About Crypto, Eva Kaili?
Kaili hasn’t left crypto out in the cold, either. She goes on to implore the ECB to:
“… provide feedback on the sources of volatility of cryptocurrencies, identify dangers for the public, and explore the possibilities of incorporating cryptocurrencies in the European payment system.”
Whichever direction the European Commission decides to take, the decision-making wheels grind slowly in Brussels, so it may be some time before a unified framework is adopted. Still, Eva Kaili clearly sees the benefits of the nascent technology, and Ripple could stand to benefit the most:
“Recently, I had to send €2,000 to my mother in Greece from my account in Brussels. She needed the money that day and I couldn’t use the bank because it would take three working days. If I could send it to her using RippleNet, she would immediately receive the payment.”
Have your say. Will the E.U. follow the leads of Switzerland and Singapore and develop comprehensive legal frameworks around blockchain and cryptocurrencies?
Images via Pixabay
