Many leaders in the blockchain industry visited CoinQuora’s media lounge during the World Blockchain Summit. Thomas Nägele, President of the Crypto Country Association Liechtenstein visited us and gave us some insights into what they do at the Crypto Country Association Liechtenstein.

Q. Q. Please describe yourself and CCA.

Sure, my name is Thomas Nägele, and I’m an Attorney-At-Law from Liechtenstein. It’s a small principality in the heart of Europe. I’m also the president of the Crypto Country Association (CCA) Liechtenstein. Our team is also in Dubai. The blockchain summit is today, and I spoke to regulators. And, that’s what I do. The Liechtenstein government had me as part of a workgroup that wrote the Liechtenstein legislation. It is known as the blockchain act. And because it’s such a very comprehensive approach, and how we addressed all of the major questions, now, they are arising in other jurisdictions as well, like DeFi, and NFTs, we already covered that. The legislation was implemented in January 2020. The idea behind this legislation is to have a conversation with the local ecosystem and to just explore it. I’ve been here since Sunday and you can see how many companies are setting up shop in Dubai. So it’s, it’s just amazing to see what is happening here.

Q. How’s the regulation going in your country? Are they achieving a positive outcome? Or are there some opposition to blockchain and cryptocurrency like we’ve seen in other countries like China?

Liechtenstein began 2016 thinking about regulation. So the idea back then was to decide first, whether we want to just leave it as it is and don’t regulate it in any case, or if we want to regulate it and find another approach. That actually answered your question. It’s enforced since the first of January 2020, so we regulated it, but I think we found a rather balanced approach.

Because when you think about regulation, that industry and that’s actually, that’s what I tell a lot of other lawmakers around the globe, because when they asked me how they should approach these issues, always tell them to get educated first, and that’s what was happening in Liechtenstein.

This was the result of a lot more effort in understanding technology, and then explaining why it’s different than what we had previously seen. With that solid foundation, it is easier to see where regulation really needs to be. For example, investors are the most common regulation. So they regulate, for example, if companies are fundraising, or if they provide exchange services, we said no, what we want to do is we want to provide the legal framework for the token economy, so for everything, so for example, if Yes, for sure, if we provide exchange services that’s also regulated, you have a license there a clear path how to do that. But in addition to that, you can tokenize almost any asset in Europe, in Liechtenstein with our token container model, that’s the model we have in our legislation. And the interesting thing, and that’s why I call it. Since I worked as a coder almost 10 years ago, it is what I call the blockchain. It’s the base layer and the protocol layer. Our law, in fact, is the enforcement layer.

If I were to read that a token could be used to represent an art piece, I would say that this NFT represents that art piece. What you can do is if you transfer the token, I hope I mean, if you buy an NFT telling you, you’re the owner of that piece of art, and if you transfer the token to me, I would ask you Ezra. Okay, now I’m the token holder, but I’m also the owner of the piece of art, and you need that legal enforceability. You need an enforceable claim. So that’s what we provided in Liechtenstein. Just to put it in perspective, Liechtenstein’s essence is small. So we know that we like it, it’s just, it could serve as a blueprint. It does. The European Commission published their draft legislation for Europe on September 2020. And if I analyze, and if a check, like the level of regulation is quite similar, that’s a good opportunity, if you want to start in Europe, you can start in our country.

The European Economic Area is also our member and you can make the most of it and draw the 400 million customers. So we are in Europe, generally speaking, quite open and the good thing is and I think that’s the difference is that they really get themselves educated first. They understand what is happening here, and then provide a solid framework for it and I think that’s what entrepreneurs need.

Q. Q. Do you have thoughts about mining?

When we think about regulation in the act itself, you don’t find something which covers mining, and I think that is for good reason. First, the way you manage mining depends greatly on your organization. This is why it’s not something we do here in America, as energy prices are too high. So we don’t have mining companies in our country. But here’s the thing with mining, people are concerned about environmental issues. This is true. We need to take a closer look at what is happening.

But, on the other hand, you have to really put things into perspective because if you think about mining and the energy consumption, I mean, that’s a very transparent system like blockchain, and you know, exactly the energy consumption of the blockchain system and so you can say, like, there is really a huge consumption.

However, this energy will have a purpose. I mean, it’s not that you don’t waste that energy, it has a certain use to make secure transactions and the difference is just that it is so transparent, that everybody can check what a transaction is consuming energy. If you compare that, for example, to our existing monetary system, you don’t have any figures you don’t know how much energy is consumed not only by printing there with the banking notes and like having the coins, but also all of the intermediaries, which which are actually needed to operate such a system. To be honest, it’s a problem and there must always be improvement. It has its place. It’s needed to do that energy. On the other side, we’re not so bad compared to other things.

Q. Do you know of any specific projects? We will be there next!

What I can say is that Liechtenstein has been open to dialogue. Our regulator can be contacted directly. You can also talk to our government. Everyone should do their homework and ask the local advisors what they recommend. Once you are educated and ready to make a decision about jurisdiction, I would tell them. So it’s not that Liechtenstein is the best option for everybody. The individual’s goals will determine what the best option is. But it’s at least worth considering when you start to think about Europe. You can also see me in Lisbon at the beginning of October, before returning to Dubai around mid-November. So if you follow me on LinkedIn, you’ll find me and then he will see where I’m speaking. Many thanks. Thank you for your time.

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