Felix Hufeld, chief of Germany’s economic watchdog, has said blockchain technology is “revolutionary” and its applications could point the entire financial sector “upside down.”
Hufeld, who is president of the German Pecuniary Supervisory Authority (BaFin), made the remarks during a speech at an experience in Berlin last week in which he described the regulator’s thinking on bitcoin and blockchain.
In defiance of the current hype around the bitcoin price and the boom of initial coin presents (ICOs), he said, blockchain’s ability to power distributed applications “could in point of fact be revolutionary.”
Hufeld continued:
“These apps are not only safe from derelictions of individual computers or providers, they also promote the development of a ‘blockchain husbandry.'”
Further, the BaFin head said blockchain applications have contract in areas that lack “an effective control mechanisms or trustworthy rules” such as in foreign trade or development aid.
The speech follows remarks by Hufeld in April, in which he averred that he does not want to “kill innovation” in blockchain, though his mechanism is beefing up efforts to regulate cryptocurrency trading over money-laundering concerns, according to a announcement at the time.
BaFin also issued new guidelines in February outlining how and when it last wishes a consider tokens issued during ICOs to be securities, saying it would treat a case-by-case approach in determining the legal status of individual tokens.
BaFin figure of speech via Shutterstock
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