Malta - The Blockchain Island

Malta, an island nation in the Mediterranean, has earned the name "Blockchain Island" because of its eagerness to adopt the technology. It is the first nation to make changes to its jurisdiction and make regulations related to blockchain and cryptocurrency.

The Maltese parliament, in July this year, passed a law that helped set up the framework related to the blockchain, cryptocurrency and other digital assets. Silvio Schembri, who is the country's Junior Minister for Financial Services, responsible for implementing the strategy, quoted on Forbes explaining how the island nation was turning itself into the world's first blockchain island.

The move has already attracted the world's biggest crypto exchanges. OKEx and Binance, with ZBX, also setting up offices on the island. The Malta Blockchain Summit, which is starting November 1, represents how massive the momentum of the drive is. The announcement of the summit is not something new with the planning going on since last December. It is going to witness some banks as well as some big names in the Venture Capital space.

The InterContinental Hotel on St Julian's island will host the event with four conferences over the course of two days. The exhibition floor has already been sold out. There is also a Hackathon spanning over a course of two days, which has around 300 blockchain developers taking part. The prize money is set up at €50,000 (c.$57,000).

The organizers claim that around 5,000 delegates will be attending the Malta Blockchain Summit, with hundreds of investors, some 100 speakers, 300 sponsors as well as numerous exhibitors. Maltese Government has announced that with the start of the Blockchain Summit, three new three new decentralized ledger technology bills will come into force: The Malta Digital Innovation Authority Act; The Innovative Technological Arrangement and Service Act; and, The Virtual Financial Asset Act.

The new laws introduced by the government are meant to work cordially to provide a "clear and navigable" framework for businesses and technologies so that they are not hindered by the current indecisiveness and limitations of the decisions made by the regulatory bodies.

If an asset is not covered or defined by the aforementioned laws, they will be considered as a Virtual Financial Asset and regulated by new laws. This has put off some steam on ICOs and crypto exchanges as they know now that they in compliance with the authorities and don't run the risk of shutting down their businesses.

Eman Pulis, the founder of the Malta Blockchain Summit, said: “I wish to welcome every blockchain enthusiast to the Malta Blockchain Summit, a melting pot for global influencers in technology, civil society, democracy promotion, and innovation.”

A recently held event called the CoinAgenda 2018, saw Joseph Muscat, the Prime Minister of Malta giving a keynote address. The island nation is one of the smallest and most densely populated countries in the world.