On April 26th, Taiwan held its first public hearing concerning blockchain technology and its relationship with money transmission, current regulations, and academic research. The meeting saw Government officials, blockchain promoters, and scholars gathering at the Taiwanese Legislative Council to discuss distributed ledgers and the economic implications they will bring.
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During the meeting National Taiwan University Professor, and Department of Finance member, Kuan Chung-ming says blockchain technology will be a cross-border link between the country and industries worldwide. The professor also stresses the emerging protocol is far more cost effective than traditional payment rails and says “Taiwan should seize the opportunity as soon as possible.” Former FSC Chairperson Tseng Ming-chung and most of the incumbent legislators in attendance agreed with this stance. Ming-chung explained to the crowd, and central bank attendees that the Bank of England has been assessing the new financial technology and Taiwan should follow suit. He also went into great detail about global investments in the industry and let the audience know the distributed ledger landscape is growing fast.
Tseng Ming-chung also believes the technology will not just affect finances but also work very well in the science sector too. Ming-chung says that this revolutionary protocol is a significant development for domestic and industrial information. He says the emerging technology follows the 70’s mainframe, the 80’s PC, and the Internet during the early 90’s and Ming-chung believes blockchains are the next evolutionary step. Another advocate Executive Secretary Caifu Long say there are lots of advantages to distributed ledger technology but notes there are disadvantages as well. The faults with the protocol Long says include a 51% attack, capacity issues, and hard forks or implementation of new versions.
Taiwan has been open to the technology for quite sometime Tseng Ming-chung explains throughout the meeting. Even though in the past it was reported by mainstream media and various crypto-publications that Bitcoin was banned within the country. This was never the case as Ming-chung explained in November of 2015 that it was not censored from the Taiwanese public and because it was considered a commodity it was not heavily regulated. Ming-chung details during the public hearing that digital currencies and blockchains will have a “significant financial impact” worldwide. In fact, the former FSC Chairperson is calling on the Taiwanese banking industry research the trend “as soon as possible.”
Taiwan’s technology development associate and professor of information and engineering at the National Taiwan University Liaoshi Wei was also a vocal proponent of blockchains. The professor said, “the nature of the blockchain is open, interoperable, and adds sharing of governance.” Overall most of the speakers involved in the public hearing said the Taiwanese government should embrace a relationship with the new fintech sector emerging all around the world. The appeal to authorities and legislators in attendance spoke of regulation being avoided so it won’t “limit financial innovation.” Another position talked about at the meeting was the proposition of creating a digital currency designed by the government itself.
Proponents of blockchain and digital currency solutions definitely let the crowd know the great benefits this technology can bring to the Taiwanese. The first public hearing in the country with officials, central bankers, and academia seemed to be positive step in the right direction. Countries all around the world don’t want to miss the opportunities blockchains can bring, and Taiwan is one of them.
What do you think about the first public blockchain hearing in Taiwan? Let us know in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Crypto-graphics.com, Wiki Commons, and ithome.com