IT’S HERE

As I write this, we’re a short while away. By the time you get to reading this, however, the promised legislation will have come into force in Malta. No lesser figure than Tim Draper has given his endorsement to the efforts made, and the results achieved, by Malta. Indeed, the forwardthinking nature of the laws themselves constitutes something of a competitive advantage for Malta as a jurisdiction.

This means that blockchain-oriented enterprise can engage with legacy banking organisations, and operate with the peace of mind afforded by clarity. I must give a huge tip of the hat to this Maltese legislature, who passed the three specific bills that provide this legal certainty with exceptional agility. The first of the bills, the MDIA Act establishes the first regulatory body of its kind – it will supervise ‘technology arrangements’ such as smart contracts and DLT platforms. The ITAS Act shall establish a registration system for such technology arrangements that volunteer for that registration and subsequent certification by approved systems auditors. Finally, the VFIA shall classify DLT assets through a financial instruments test. This classification will determine how they relate to national and European legislation currently in force.

What I love about our Parliament is that when it matters most our politicians can rise to the occasion. This is how the Three Bills sailed through Parliament unanimously – with members of both government and Opposition voting in favour. This means that even with any future change in government, It’ll be business as usual for DLT in Malta. And this gives relocating companies that extra peace of mind.

Now the ball is in our court. For our part, we’re committed to making the Malta Blockchain Summit the definitive event for this space. We’re cognizant of our role in the process. Our job is to shine the spotlight on others, not ourselves. Everything about the Malta Blockchain Summit has been designed with that purpose. That means that initiatives like our ICO Pitch and our Hackathon are intended to give the whole scene a boost. It’s not entirely altruistic. A rising tide lifts all boats – if we’re able to project the immense promise of blockchain, give the best ICOs a lift, and attract the best developers to our burgeoning Blockchain Island, everyone will be better off, ourselves included. This tech is still at the stage where success and failure are neither fatal nor final, and a lot of lessons are being learned on the fly. Our goal is to help forge the right connections, and to provide the right talking shop to speed up that learning.

Equally important to us is the possible interplay with other promising emerging technologies. Blockchain, AI and IOT look like they could mesh together very well, and completely change how we conduct our human affairs. We’ll be exploring some of that through this publication, and throughout our show.

Finally, it’s time to issue some thanks. We’ve experienced nothing but support from the myriad public figures who will be speaking at our show, or who have been instrumental in unseen ways. It would have been impossible to launch the Malta Blockchain Summit without their buying into its promise with faith and goodwill as the only currencies. Our gratitude is distributed, and immutable.