“Blockchain·cryptocurrency, even unknown to be included in the Government recommendation proposal”
The ‘blockchain·ICO TF(tentative)’ that Presidential Committee on the Fourth Industrial Revolution(hereinafter, PCFIR) pushed forward, is facing abandonment.
The ‘blockchain·ICO TF’ was supposed to be constituted in the first half of this year. However, the discussion regarding the TF is still not moving forward, with the office term of PCFIR 2nd committee is left less than 5 months. According to the relevant industry on 11th, the constitution of ‘blockchain·ICO TF’ which the 2nd committee was planning to compose, seems unlikely. It is against what the chairman Jang, Byeonggyu of PCFIR announced, as he said earlier that PCFIR will prepare the policy proposal after composing the ‘blockchain·ICO TF’.
The chairman seemed determined to compose the TF when the 2nd committee of PCFIR was first established in December last year. He announced that the proposal will be prepared by composing TF because the opinions of blockchain field need to be organized.
However, even at the point where the first half of the year has passed, the relevant TF is not composed. Professor Kim, Seungju of Korea University who is also a committee member of PCFIR said, “Currently even the discussion about blockchain TF is not in process. The blockchain has no priority in PCFIR committee at the moment.”
It also is appeared to be uncertain whether the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution Countermeasures 2.0’ proposal-to-government includes blockchain related contents.
”Blockchain Contents, Uncertain to be Included in PCFIR Proposal”
According to the industry, the official documents related to the blockchain proposal is already complete. It is known to contain proposals the industry has been insisted on with regard to blockchain·cryptocurrency. However, the Initial Coin Offering(ICO) related matters are not included.
Although the proposals regarding blockchain are prepared, it is uncertain whether it will be included in the final proposal. Personnel of PCFIR said, “It is still undecided whether to include the blockchain related contents in the proposal. What we are discussing in the PCFIR is largely impacted by different stakeholders’ interest.”
The proposal-to-government which was planned to be completed in the first half of this year, is now in preparation, aiming to be completed in upcoming October. Currently, it is at the 1st revision stage for the 50% of its contents, and will promptly make a full document out of different rough drafts.
How much effect the proposal would have is another problem. The person in concern of PCFIR added, “The general tone and formality of the proposal will be determined by its contents. Nothing is agreed upon the formality of the proposal yet.” The government continues to keep its negative stance to the cryptocurrency and ICO. In addition, the Financial Services Commission has submitted the statement that says “Cryptocurrency is only an online ideogram certificate with absolutely no intrinsic value, and ICO is a social evil,”
The industry analyzes that the reason why the ‘blockchain·ICO TF’ cannot be composed is profoundly affected by the government stance.
A person in concern of the industry said, “PCFIR is a place for rapid discussion to be carried out. However, government departments that are against blockchains and ICO are not even trying to sit down on the table, because they believe it may cause misunderstandings.”
The personnel added, “It seems difficult to expect any change of situation at the moment unless there are external pressures such as ‘Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering(FATF)’. I rather hope FATF give strong regulations to leave the government departments no other choices but to change its policy.”
Hwang Jungbin(2019.07.11.) 4차위 ‘블록체인TF’ 무산위기… “논의조차 없어”
ZD Net Korea Retrieved from https://www.zdnet.co.kr/view/?no=20190711144731
