Call to set up legal framework for crowdfunding

Experts at a roundtable have called for developing a policy and legal framework for blockchain so that Bangladesh can reap the benefit of this global phenomenon.

Digital companies in Bangladesh have the potential to take the advantage of this crowd funding mechanism and be leaders in this highly-prospective field, they said.

The observations came at a roundtable themed 'Disrupting global financing with blockchain- Strategy for Bangladesh' held on Wednesday in Dhaka.

Experts observed that governments around the world are already exploring blockchain for various purposes.

For example, the US state of Delaware is using blockchain to help companies incorporate while Sweden is using the technology to test a land registry where property buyers, sellers, their banks and land registry authorities can all view and approve transactions on a blockchain in real time.

Dubai has set the ambitious goal of running its entire government on blockchain by 2020 while Estonia has been heralded as the first government to embrace blockchain, initially with a focus on cybersecurity but now also for citizen services like e-voting.

"It is being said that the blockchain will do to banking what the Internet did to media", said Shameem Ahsan, Chairman of e-Generation, the country's leading IT company.

"Disruption is coming, from healthcare and remittance to banking, real estate and venture capital", Ahsan added.

"Today, decentralised organisations are raising money from the crowd via initial coin offerings (ICO's) and traditional companies are launching tokens and raising from the crowd via ICO's," he said.

It is estimated that global blockchain market would grow from US$ 210.2 million in 2016 to US$ 2,312.5 million by 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 61.5 per cent, speakers said,

"Blockchain technology is already being used in some parts of the world in medical industry while IBM is using this technology for supply chain monitoring", said SM Ashraful Islam, Executive Vice President of eGeneration, one of the leading IT companies of the country.

"Due to open access to data, copyright protection will face a huge challenge. Blockchain will play a big role in copyright protection", Islam said, adding, "There are also huge opportunities for using blockchain in land record management".

"Given the recent advent of blockchain across the globe, Bangladesh do need to develop a legal framework for this technology", Secretary to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication Shyam Sunder Sikder said.

Speaking on the occasion, the newly-appointed telecom minister Mustafa Jabbar said that the country should move towards further digitalising its education system.

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