South Korea Readies Regulations

South Korea is getting ready to regulate cryptocurrencies. They just held a public hearing dealing with it.

Korean lawmaker Park Yong-jin wants consumer protections to be included in an upcoming bill. The bill would regulate, bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies.

The bill intends to make consumer protections for cryptocurrencies stronger and Park feels the bill must include them. He was quoted as saying:

“Without a legal framework, we can neither regulate, nurture, nor support the cryptocurrency-related industries. Also, the legal vacuum prevents those who committed virtual currency-related crimes from being punished.”

Chae Won-hee, said that criminality regarding cryptocurrencies should be prevented by creating crypto regs.

The government hasn’t made up its mind yet, but the discussion in a political venue tilted toward increased regulation. The trouble with regulation is that sooner or later it will collide with the intrinsic ability of people to use cryptocurrencies away from formal settings. The same goes for blockchain.

The kinds of regulation that Korea is contemplating would bring cryptocurrencies fully into the monetary mainstream. But that will just the beginning of the changes. The more South Korea makes cybercurrencies like existing money, the less people will want to use it. One of the attractions of private currencies is that they are not regulated.

Some regulation may be necessary simply because the Korean monetary structure is set up that way. The question is how much? And South Korea sounds as if it is verging on too much even before regulations have passed.

blockcitynews.com