Competition Commission paper on blockchain tech spells regulatory risk

Main monetary our bodies are wanting extra critically at blockchain, the underlying know-how of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. The Competition Commission of India (CCI), in collaboration with EY, not too long ago got here out with a dialogue paper on blockchain and its authorized ramifications. The 50-page doc, which has been reviewed by Enterprise Commonplace, retains the federal government’s stand to permit innovation in blockchain however factors to regulatory dangers as this know-how proliferates.

“Given the decentralised nature of blockchains, there will not be any identifiable host, or an operator and the nodes could also be unfold throughout the globe with transactions occurring between the nodes situated in numerous jurisdictions. Subsequently, in case of any authorized, coverage or regulatory challenge, it’s obscure which jurisdiction’s insurance policies and regulations might apply,” the paper notes.

“Within the case of permission-less blockchains, community individuals could also be nameless or pseudonymous, ie, their identities aren’t identified totally. In such a state of affairs, policymakers and regulators are prone to face enforcement challenges by way of figuring out liable entities and penalising them for wrongful conduct.”

As main functions of blockchain will doubtless be within the finance area, CCI is concentrated on the authorized buildings of such entities. The paper says that beneath the Indian legislation a blockchain might be doubtlessly understood to be an “affiliation of individuals” for authorized and tax classification, or could also be handled as a partnership the place “every companion can be held collectively liable for all liabilities of the enterprise and all private belongings of every companion are topic to seizure or lien by collectors”.

It, nonetheless, says that there’s little chance to carry somebody accountable for information breach as information in blockchain is immutable, not erasable and held by a number of individuals.

Given these considerations, it’s unlikely that blockchain companies shall be given a free hand to develop with out first structuring the enterprise beneath Indian legal guidelines. That stated, authorities and personal entities are being allowed to check blockchain in numerous functions.

Among the many ongoing pilots, as famous within the paper, are:

* Espresso Board, in collaboration with Eka Blockchain Market, launched a pilot blockchain-based espresso e-marketplace to combine Indian espresso growers with international markets in a clear method and guarantee truthful value realisation for the producers.

* NITI Aayog, Oracle, Apollo Hospitals and Strides Pharma Sciences, in 2018, piloted a blockchain-based drug provide chain resolution. The answer completely registers a drug’s file, together with its serial quantity, labelling and scanning, via its motion from a producer to logistics, from stockist to hospital, or from pharmacy to client, limiting the scope for the file to be deleted or tampered.

* The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has examined the usage of blockchain for its ‘know your buyer’ (KYC) course of together with some Indian banks and undertaken a pilot for e-voting utilizing blockchain.

* The Authorities of Andhra Pradesh has introduced plans to make use of blockchain know-how for internet hosting land data and for streamlining the method of sustaining data pertaining to automobiles’ possession.

The anonymity of blockchain-based transactions is without doubt one of the key the explanation why bitcoin buying and selling was banned in India in 2018, and is prone to be banned once more as a part of advice within the soon-to-be-table Cryptocurrency Invoice.

In 2018, the federal government created an inter-ministerial committee to check and supply suggestions on cryptocurrencies and blockchain. In its report submitted to the finance ministry in 2019, the committee advisable a ban on cryptocurrencies and in addition formulated a draft legislation, the Banning of Cryptocurrency & Regulation of Official Digital Foreign money Invoice, 2019, which mandates a positive and imprisonment of as much as 10 years for dealing in personal cryptocurrencies. The Invoice continues to be within the dialogue part.

The committee, nonetheless, stated the federal government ought to hold “an open thoughts on the potential introduction of an official cryptocurrency”, whereas additionally look to deploy blockchain “for monetary companies equivalent to cross-border funds, mortgage issuance and monitoring, insurance coverage, securities and commodity buying and selling, collateral and possession registries, equivalent to land data”.

Earlier in 2017, the Reserve Financial institution of India had issued a white paper on functions of blockchain know-how for the banking and the monetary sector in India which recognized blockchain as one of many three pillars to drive digital transformation and innovation within the Banking, Monetary Companies and Insurance coverage (BFSI) sector.