Crypto and Blockchain Regulation: Where Are We (Heading) Now?

In this talk for Bitcoin Wednesday’s 5-Year Anniversary Edition on 4-5 July, 2018, Simon Lelieveldt will take a step back and look at both the technology of Bitcoin (i.e. blockchain and cryptocurrency) and the regulatory response to it over the years. In doing so he will draw on the history of financial (and e-money) regulation in order to determine the similarities and the differences this time around. He will sketch the dynamics of market development and regulation for previous innovations (EFTPOS, chipcards, e-cash) which he witnessed in his former roles as a banker, product developer, e-money supervisor and bank lobbyist.

He will also outline the main challenges for regulators: functional assessment and supervision of new technologies as well as the challenge for market players: understanding where regulation comes from and how past interventions have shaped the current rules. The goal of his presentation is to create a fertile basis for future dialogues between market players and regulators which may cover token issuances as well as the application of AML5 rules in the crypto scene.

Simon will end his presentation with an outline of a non-standard ICO-offering which will reach the market by the end of 2018. This offering will connect past and future financial innovations of the Amsterdam financial sector.

Simon Lelieveldt is a business engineer with extensive experience as a banker, central banker and supervisor. He combines a professional view on today’s payments and banking world with a historic perspective on the development of the financial sector. He is currently a regulatory consultant in the domains of Payments, Fintech and Blockchain, and is involved in issues such as AML5 for crypto-exchanges and the application of PSD2 for near-payment business solution providers.

He has previously worked as: Head of Department on Supervision and Financial Markets at the Dutch Bankers Association, Senior policy analyst at the Dutch Bankers Association, an independent e-money consultant, a Supervisor at the Central Bank of The Netherlands (co-author of reports on e-money and retail payments), and Banker and Payments Strategist at ING / Postbank. His payments blog covers relevant developments and analysis over many years in the financial industry.