On 19 June 2019, Dr. Thomas Dünser, Director of the Office for Financial Market Innovation of the Liechtenstein Government, gave a lunchtime talk entitled “Blockchain, Token Economy and Regulation in Liechtenstein.” In his insightful and thought-provoking exposé, based on his experiences leading the “Blockchain Act” project in Liechtenstein, Dr. Dünser emphasised that the term “Token Economy” summarises a very important development in the digitalisation of our economy and society, driven by Blockchain technology. In a Token Economy, an enormous variety of assets and goods will be represented on a digital transaction system without necessarily relying on a regulated intermediary. As a result, many business processes can be designed more efficiently, and with a greater degree of trust than is possible today. Providing practical insights, Dr. Dünser highlighted that in a Token Economy, users and service providers need to have basic legal aspects clarified in order to achieve the necessary legal certainty.

Dr. Dünser discussed the first comprehensive proposal for a regulation of the “Token Economy” which has recently been published by Liechtenstein. This consists of the legal framework for all aspects of “Tokenisation,” registration and supervision of the most relevant service providers, duties of basic user information regarding public token sales, the application of anti-money laundering legislation, as well as the possibility of issuing and transferring digital securities. His talk was followed by a lively discussion with the audience.

Dr. Dünser’s slides may be downloaded here. Further information on the “Blockchain Act” can be found here in German and in English. Further background information can be found here in German.