Liechtenstein wants to create more legal certainty for innovative companies with its new Blockchain Act, which aims to promote the development of a token economy. As a new legal element, the token is one of the most important innovations, according to Prime Minister Adrian Hasler.

Current laws tend to lag behind innovative strength, writes Prime Minister Adrian Hasler in an article in the daily newspaper the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. This makes it unclear whether a new business model is subject to financial market regulations and creates uncertainty for companies, which in turn leads to costly delays.

According to Hasler, it is important for the state to provide companies clarity about “what is possible and where the concrete boundaries lie”. This is precisely what Liechtenstein aims to achieve with its new Blockchain Act. As Hasler explains, this is not simply about the financial sector: while blockchain can be used to digitally represent securities, it can also be used for rights of use to vehicles or licensing rights to intellectual property.

“These application fields, which in principle encompass the entire economy, are usually summarized under the term ‘token economy’,” writes Hasler.

Liechtenstein now wants to promote the token economy with its new law. By introducing the token as a new legal entity, Liechtenstein is creating an instrument with which any right from the analogue world can be represented digitally. In Hasler’s opinion, this is one of the most important innovations of the planned Blockchain Act.

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