Web3 Foundation (W3F), the Switzerland-based trade group representing decentralised web software companies, has called on EU policymakers and supervisors to provide more clarity about how web3 technology will be regulated.
The comments came during a panel discussion at the Polkadot Decoded event in Denmark.
W3F chief legal officer Daniel Schoenberger stated regulation has hitherto slowed innovation in the sector by not creating new frameworks that reflected the technology’s properties.
However, he also expressed some optimism that rules were heading in the right direction, citing the EU’s Market in Crypto Assets (Mica) regulation.
“Companies should be regulated for what they are, and what they do. We are encouraged by how some jurisdictions have tailored their regulations to the reality of the technology,” said Schoenberger.
“A good example of this deep understanding is, the EU’s MiCA regulation, which has included its own class of utility token, a crucial step to recognising the different classes of tokens based on their functionalities.”
Much of the concern around Web3 technology and decentralised finance has centred on security and privacy, as noted by another panellist, Paige Collings, senior speech and privacy activist at digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation.
“It is important that any regulation should be addressing behaviours rather than technologies. Just because something is decentralised doesn’t mean we don’t have bad actors,” said Collings.
“We need to make sure the same considerations of the centralised web are being applied in the decentralised world as well, and that we are not just taking this as an opportunity to innovate without any consideration of people’s speech and privacy, but we are putting that at the forefront of any new developments.”