Switzerland Investigating ICOs - And Why This Is Good News

In crypto world, Switzerland has a very good reputation, many crypto related foundations being created and maintained in Zug (Zurich). The relaxed law framework even made Zug to be known as the "crrypto-valley" of the blockchain, a hint at the more famous (for now) Silicon Valley and its startup ecosystem.

But in an interesting news released a couple a days ago, the financial regulatory institution of Switzerland, FINMA, announced that it started to investigate a number of ICOs, "to determine whether regulatory provisions have been breached.".

And then the announcement goes like this:

How ICOs are structured from technical, functional and business standpoints varies markedly from offering to offering. ICOs are currently not governed by specific regulations, either globally or in Switzerland. Swiss legislation on financial markets is principle-based; one such principle is technology neutrality. Collecting funds for one’s own account without a platform or issuing house is unregulated from a supervisory perspective in cases where repayment is not obliged, payment instruments have not been issued and no secondary market exists.

And the last paragraph is, in my opinion, the most important:

FINMA cannot rule out that ICO activities may be fraudulent, especially in light of current market developments. A few days ago, it therefore published a press release informing the general public about enforcement proceedings currently in progress and how it deals with fake cryptocurrencies. It also issued a general warning about increased fraudulent activity by fake cryptocurrency providers.

In an article written a few days ago I made a comparison between the early World Wide Web days and the current status of the blockchain technology. There are a lot of resemblances between these two periods and one of them, unfortunately, is the abundance of scammy operations, based on hype, lack of knowledge and naivety of potential targets.

ICOs are just a tool, and this tool can be used, like a knife, for good or for bad. When it is used for bad - and in my opinion a lot of scammy stuff is going on on the ICO level nowadays - a reaction will form and this reaction is legit.

Given that Switzerland proved itself outstandingly good at managing time (watches) and money (most private bank accounts in the world), I think the outcome of this measure will protect both in the long run: the time of people who are creating good, valuable stuff founded by legitimate ICOs, and their money.

Of course, Switzerland proved itself outstandingly good at cheese too, but that's another story.

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I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.

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