Bitcoin Forum

A European lawmaker believes that new regulations for initial coin offerings (ICOs) are the key to making them more "accessible" within the European Union.

Ashley Fox, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss proposed regulations that would set in place new rules for ICOs and, more specifically, the people and businesses that conduct them.

Fox said that the rules would be voluntary for projects that engage in token sales, though he hopes that companies will want to abide by them if they are adopted.

The MEP's proposal would limit the proceeds for ICOs to 8 million euros, mandate know-your-customer/anti-money laundering rules, and provide token startups with access to the entire EU, he explained in an exclusive interview with CoinDesk.

"What I'm aiming to do is bring transparency to ICOs, allowing intermediaries to perform the required due diligence. And the effect of this will be to provide an EU-wide law which gives a passport to the whole market," he said.

As time goes by, he added, more companies may wish to be regulated under the framework.

Fox went on to say:

"ICOs can carry on, but if they don't fill the [criteria], they won't benefit. [Introducing the regulations] will give them a passport to the whole of the EU market, and I also think it increases transparency. Right now you have 28 countries, some have national rules for raising money and some don't have any rules at all. If you raise money in France, for example, you can only use that money in France."

Continue reading >> https://www.coindesk.com/eu-lawmaker-wants-standard-regulations-to-allow-passport-for-icos/

The internet is the whole world, it doesn't have a border that ends in the EU or anywhere else (even internet users in China and North Korea can find ways to reach the world outside).

So the only way this kind of effort could really work would be if there were a unanimous agreement around the world to implement a passport for ALL internet usage. This would only perpetuate the cat and mouse game further though, as people could build a private internet that doesn't require the passport.

The sooner that governements and their politicians realise that internet tech is more powerful than they are, the better. This story is a sign they will not, of course, go down without a fight. I expect that their self-interest will get the better of them, however.

Perhaps that fight will be a drawn out one, since corporations and conglomerates will be the first to embrace such moves, complying with the status quo, as part of the status quo. It's funny how the political world is still a huge playground, where people think they own the individual toys, and will only let friends play with their toys.

Lawmakers, lobbyists, the elite. They probably aren't failing to see this. But they know they can force the system to at least outlive them.

I hope that in the rules of the European Union it will be clearly written who gets under the control of KYC. It is clearly said that such a check is carried out in order to prevent the laundering of dirty money, that is, it should only apply to investors. Therefore, it should not apply to the participants of the ICO generosity campaign, who do not invest in ICO projects. Perhaps the ICO teams after the adoption of such rules will no longer require to pass a KYC test from bounty hunters.

I think you're being optimistic here. In many countries access to the internet is controlled or blocked entirely. There are millions of people around the world that have never even done a Google search because they don't have any access to it.

In any case, setting the rules for conducting ICO campaigns in 28 countries of the European Union is something that we have long expected. I hope, first of all, the rules will concern the identification of the members of the ICO team themselves and this will eliminate or greatly reduce the incidences of fraud on their part.
 I do not yet know how to relate to setting a limit in raising funds for an ICO project in the amount of eight million dollars. After all, now many ICO teams are trying to collect 20 and 50 million dollars. It seems to me that if the ICO team wants to collect more than eight million, they need to give them the right to argue the amount above the established limit and that these arguments are considered by the appropriate supervisory authority.

They very likely realize that they can not stop ICO's and cryptocurrencies, but they know that they can go after exchanges, and that would really hurt crypto economy because it will be cut off from liquidity. Even if we imagine some really good decentralized exchanges, the governments would still be able to hurt crypto because they control fiat payment processors - they will make some algorithms that will detect cryptocurrency-related activities. So, in worst case crypto will be pushed into darknet markets, making crypto economy relatively small.

Such rules have long been needed to be introduced in all states. The lack of regulation in the field of ICO raises to a high level of fraud. Investors are deceived into millions of dollars, and this is a crime in all states. Such regulation is already very late. I hope that the demand for KYC verification will no longer apply to the participants of the ICO generosity campaign, since they are not investors.

How do you think , they can cleary define who will do the KYC? They will say that ICOs should do it if they want to do their bussines in EU. And even if these ICO ( who would do registration) decide to ask for KYC for bounty hunter as well, i tshould not be a problem since these legit ICOs would need to provide the highest quality KYC since EU has the strictest data protecion policies.

On other note i do not understand the 8 million cap. but i suppose that it is resonable max amount for a start up.