Introduction of a National Strategy on the Development of Decentralized Technologies and Blockchain in Cyprus

On June 18, 2019, the Council of Ministers of Cyprus approved a National Strategy on Decentralized Technologies and Blockchain. The use of these technologies is encouraged in both the public and private sectors (in the financial services sector, which deals with the banking). It is expected that transactions will be transformed in the coming years.

Decentralized technologies are distinctive in that they can be used to implement any idea, if it is technologically possible. It means that there are no bureaucratic obstacles between developers and their ideas, since software is developed with open source.

An interesting point in this strategy is that the Ministry of Finance of Cyprus, in cooperation with the Tax Department and the Registrar of Companies, will coordinate the development of a regulatory framework and its implementation based on certain policies and principles. At the same time, the decision on the issue of introducing crypto-currencies has been postponed so far. A specific action plan on the above topic has not been presented either.

It is worth noting that the National Strategy came as a result of the efforts made within the framework of the European Cooperation in Blockchain, which was entered into on June 4, 2018 between Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, subject to the relevant Declaration of the Southern Mediterranean Countries on Distributed Ledger Technologies of December 4, 2018.