A technology entrepreneur and cryptocurrency investor has called on countries around the world to follow the Philippines’ model for market regulation.
Patrick Palacios is the founder and CEO of virtual currency exchange LoyalCoin and Appsolutely, which provides digital rewards programmes for multinational companies.
The entrepreneur says the Philippines boasts one of the fastest-growing crypto communities in the world with a government that has been encouraging growth of the technology.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently announced it will be rolling out new regulation to govern crypto transactions – and Palacios has urged other countries to follow suit.
“These new rules mean the burden of proving the legitimacy of ICO tokens will be put in the hands of the issuer, and they will otherwise be deemed otherwise,” he said.
“This is a benchmark for the regulation of cryptocurrency. Beforehand, allowing certain kinds of behaviour without regulation has put hundreds of thousands of investors at risk.”
The new regulation means that all companies, individuals and businesses starting an initial coin offering (ICO) in the Philippines will have to register with the SEC first.
Palacios added: “Prior to this, victims of these scams had little opportunity to pursue their cash once they had been taken advantage of. Now the threat of real consequences for malicious ICOs will deter issuers and give victims more strength to fight back.
“Now I would urge other countries and regulators to follow suit, and make regulation a truly global thing. South East Asian markets in particular should be following the Philippine model.”
LoyalCoin aims to create a global rewards network of retailers, where all loyalty schemes are linked to a single virtual token.
Members of this 200,000-strong community can redeem these in places like 7-Eleven and GongCha in the Philippines.
Palacios stressed that global regulation will encourage more businesses to start taking blockchain and cryptocurrency more seriously.
His firm is the first Philippine crypto and it successfully held a token generation event ending in February 2018, producing 9 billion coins.
“Regulation will be essential to the adoption of cryptocurrency on a global scale, but authorities shouldn’t be too strict — making sure they allow room for growth and innovation,” he said.
“We have experienced some scepticism about the potential in the blockchain and cryptocurrency — but that can soon disappear with the correct education.
“And once more traditional businesses see proper regulation taking shape, it will also encourage them to embrace the benefits of this technology.
“The key issues affecting cryptocurrency, like security and volatility, can be rectified through regulation.”