Sandboxes Aren't Enough: Blockchain Leaders Seek Regulation Relief

The event, taking place alongside the United Nations General Assembly, included a special track devoted to blockchain discussions.

So-called sandboxes may help both regulators and startups to work out new practices and come to terms about specific issues.

Further, while Singapore was praised as a forward-thinking jurisdiction, its openness to blockchain businesses has apparently not trickled down to the Pacific city-state's regulated financial institutions.

The person who perhaps stole in the show in their advocacy for a more agile regulation was Eva Kaili, a member of the European Parliament representing Greece.

Next week, the European Commission is expected to adopt a resolution on blockchain and distributed ledger technology, initally passed by the European Parliament in May. The resolution seeks to define the future regulatory framework for the businesses related to distributed ledger technology and suggests the allocation of approximately 340 million euros to support pilot public projects in the E.U. between 2018 and 2020.

Kaili recalled the time when European regulators were discussing what they should do with so-called sharing economy startups like Uber and AirBnB. "Uber does not follow the rules - we just have to ban it," was one of the ways to think about it, she said, but such a stance makes the pursuit of innovative business models impossible.

Regulators themselves may find that blockchain helps them do their own jobs better, according Blythe Masters, founder of enterprise DLT startup Digital Asset.

"There are a lot of real benefits for regulators.

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