How Malta Is Becoming the Blockchain Hub of the World: A Talk With Leading Law Firm

On July 4, 2018, the Parliament of Malta approved a regulatory framework for blockchain technology, making Malta one of the most 'blockchain-friendly' countries in the world.

Cointelegraph talked to Simon Schembri, a partner at Ganado Advocates - one of the leading Maltese law firms that was involved in drafting the legislation - about what it means for the country, investors and future.

On how it all started "It started a couple of years ago when there was initial momentum within a number of smaller organizations within the country and then it gained lots of momentum since June of last year, after the reelection of the current government."The purpose was to make Malta a blockchain hub, attracting a number of investments in the country.

As a law firm, we've been inundated with requests and have already been working on a number of transactions.

"Malta [is] the first world jurisdiction to provide legal certainty to this space.

On why a company should consider running its business in Malta "We are doing [things] differently than other jurisdictions and are not merely focusing on just ICOs and financial assets.

"We look forward to working with the Malta government, as it is forward thinking and shares many of our same values: The most important of which are protection of traders and the general public, compliance with Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer standards, and recognition of the innovation and importance of continued development in the blockchain ecosystem."

Many crypto companies have already moved their businesses to Malta, including Binance, OKEx, Tron, etc.

On ecosystem for cryptocurrencies "As I mentioned before, the regulatory framework is aimed at regulating or creating a legal framework for everything, and that also includes virtual financial assets. The aim of the regulator - in this case the Malta Financial Services Authority - is to introduce regulation on how the white paper should be formulated in having tokens issued. So, it makes it easier for a company to launch an Initial Coin Offering as well."

Our government - and I need to point out that this is not only the Maltese government, but the opposition - I mean, Malta as a whole has embraced this.