Singapore battles it out with other countries to be first fully crypto nation

Singapore has taken steps that moved it closer to the introduction of cryptocurrencies into the economy, according to TechCrunch.

The online portal believes the Singaporean government has a well-thought-out plan in that direction, and this could turn the Island city-state into the first country to fully embrace cryptocurrencies.

That could be jaw-breaker for many! And this was discussed by regulators at the ‘Singapore Consensus 2018’.

The event welcomed thousands of cryptocurrency visionaries, entrepreneurs, and experts to discuss and create new links that might form the foundation of the future of the industry, wrote the Bitcoinist.

The Bitcoin portal said an essential element of the meeting was the talk delivered by the representatives of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) with regards to the future of cryptocurrencies in their country.

This led many observers to believe the Singaporean financial regulators are far ahead of many other developed countries in the understanding of the industry.

“They seem to know what they are talking about and how they are planning the future,” said some observers. And indeed, when it comes to Singapore, things are done with an almost perfection – which a phrase that may rile many Singaporean netizens though.

According to the news portals, the MAS made a clear discrimination between different types of cryptocurrencies: utility tokens, payment tokens, and security tokens.

They quoted Damien Pang, the Head of FinTech Ecosystem and Infrastructure within MAS saying, “the MAS takes a close look at the characteristics of the tokens, in the past, at the present, and in the future, instead of just the technology built on.”

Pang went further: No MAS will not restrict blockchain or cryptocurrencies, it doesn’t aim to “regulate technology itself but [its] purpose.”

The authorities don’t plan to impose regulations on all cryptocurrency products.

But Singapore is not alone in this drive. The battle is on with other nations planning their own cryptos – if the currencies maybe called as it is sometimes too long to spell cryptocurrencies.

Malta is one country eying the waves of cryptocurrency to tokenize its financial assets.

“Over the last months, the Maltese government has actively solved how to position Malta as a major hub in terms of the digital economy, which will play a central role in the economic sustainability of the years to come. The Maltese government has legislated three acts that will provide legal certainty to this space, involving DLT and digital financial products and services such as virtual currencies and ICOs,” said Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.