Why does Singapore become a city of hope for a blockchain?

Recently, the Singapore Monetary Authority (MAS) said at the coindesk consensus meeting that MAS has never banned blockchain technology or the virtual currency itself. In the past few months, Chinese citizens have established more than 1,000 organizations in Singapore.

This phenomenon originated from September 4, 2017, the People’s Bank of China issued the “Announcement on Preventing the Risk of Subsidy Issuance Financing” on the official website, and completely stopped ICO. The ICO market, which was growing exponentially in China at the time, stopped.

In contrast to China, which is completely stopped, Singapore has the policy of opening up to the blockchain and adopting blockchain technology as its national development goal, thus becoming the reason for the domestic blockchain project to swarm.

What is the reason for Singapore’s popularity?

Policy support

Singapore is far more open to other sectors in Asia than the blockchain securities financial innovation regulatory policy.

In September 2017, Singapore launched a series of programs through the Singapore Monetary Authority (MAS) to support the financial technology industry. The project is a partnership between the Central Bank and the Blockchain Alliance R3, which focuses on developing blockchain pilots to facilitate cross-border payments. The Singapore government has also partnered with IBM to establish a blockchain technology innovation center and funded the blockchain recording system project to create a five-year, $225 million financial technology investment plan.

In addition, Singapore is also the second country to monitor the sandbox of financial technology companies after the UK. The Singapore government not only supports the policy, but also stipulates that the blockchain foundation can be legally issued by the Singapore Accounting and Enterprise Development Agency (ACRA) registration management, which is one of the reasons why the Singapore Foundation is registered.

Singapore’s non-profit public foundation is currently favored by blockchain ICO cryptocurrency industry. Singapore is the center of the Asian blockchain, close to China, and the government has a clear regulatory attitude towards ICO. It is an international blockchain. The foundation is registered as the best place to settle.

Relatively loose regulation

Of course, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) distinguishes between digital tokens and virtual currency. The digital token is Digital Token, and the virtual currency is Virtual Currency. The Singapore Monetary Authority considers virtual currency to be digital tokens. In a specific form, Singapore does not regulate virtual currency, and even welcomes virtual currency, as it can reduce the cost of financial transactions and bring more external funds.

MAS believes that only certain types of “currency” that can be used for financial payment and value exchange media, such as virtual currency such as Bitcoin currency and Eth coin, are included; and digital tokens have derived more complex forms on the basis of virtual currency. The scope should far exceed the virtual currency. For example, the digital token may be an asset title certificate or a securitization income warrant. The ICO of such digital tokens belongs to the generalized investment stipulated by the Singapore Securities and Futures Act (SFA). The issuance of securities under the scope; there are also digital tokens that represent the creditor relationship, which may be attributed to the corporate bond supervision category under the SFA.

If the digital token meets the definition of securities in the Singapore Securities and Futures Act, then the issuer needs to report the prospectus to the Singapore Monetary Authority. The ICO issuer and the intermediary need to have corresponding qualifications. The digital token trading platform must also be An exchange or secondary market approved or recognized by the Singapore Monetary Authority.

However, there are exceptions — ICO issuance under certain conditions, exemption from the provision of prospectus, including: the issue amount does not exceed S$5 million, the issue target does not exceed 50, and is issued to qualified investors.

In addition, ICO is very easy to use for money laundering and terrorism because of the anonymity of transactions and the short-term rapid accumulation of large amounts of funds. The Singapore Monetary Authority requires that the issuing and operating parties of digital tokens must pay close attention to the flow of funds, report suspicious transaction information to the regulatory authorities in a timely manner, and avoid the use of digital tokens for corruption funds, drug trafficking funds, and smuggling funds for money laundering. Measures should also be taken to control the use of digital tokens by individuals and entities prohibited by anti-terrorism laws and UN Security Council resolutions.

The Singapore Monetary Authority will assess the risks of digital money laundering and Terrorism Financing and will monitor if necessary. Singapore is using the platform to establish a customer’s Know Your Customer mechanism to reduce the possibility of ML and TF. It plans to use domestic and international inter-bank cooperation to achieve full disclosure of customer information and reduce disclosure costs.

At the same time, the Singapore Monetary Authority also adopted the sandbox supervision policy adopted by the London Financial Management Authority (FCA). Any company interested in innovative digital token applications can apply to the Singapore Monetary Authority for sandbox testing, and the HKMA will provide more relaxed environmental support for the operation of the application during sandbox testing.

In general, Singapore’s principle of non-regulation of virtual currency is consistent with that of most countries, but for digital tokens created around virtual currency, if digital tokens have securities under the Singapore Securities and Futures Act For futures product features, the digital token will enter the regulatory scope. Money laundering and terrorist financing using digital tokens will also be regulated.

Well-known projects gather in the Lion City

Registering a foundation in Singapore is a simple process. You don’t need to go to Singapore. You can submit your name, mobile number and other relevant information online. The registration threshold is very low. The registered capital is only S$1, which is about RMB 4.5, and then handed in. For tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of renminbi, after about two weeks, local professional organizations in Singapore can help solve and solve all problems of registration and project compliance.

As a result, more and more projects are flooding into Singapore, attracting more and more investment institutions to enter Singapore. At the same time, a whole set of financial service systems around the blockchain project is rapidly taking shape.

At present, well-known blockchain projects in China such as Qtum coin, TAC, etc. and Binance Exchange have registered foundations in Singapore. At the same time, well-known investment institutions have established a branch in Singapore, and the node capital is planned to move the headquarters. To Singapore and has completed the company’s registration, in addition, the distributed capital system also has an investment institution in Singapore, named BlockAsset.

The main Litecoin Foundation, the Bytom Foundation, and the BITFID Foundation all landed in Singapore. Firecoin and Bitcoin also covered major blockchain companies in Singapore.

Globally, blockchains in Silicon Valley, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, South Korea and other regions have developed rapidly, but some of Singapore’s advantages seem to be helping it to surpass other places.

Some scholars believe that although Singapore has a large number of blockchain projects, 90% of its project structure is not complete.

Despite this, no matter how many blockchain projects in Singapore will develop, Singapore, an island country in Southeast Asia, is only equivalent to the area within Beijing’s Fifth Ring Road and is gradually becoming the most inclusive of blockchain projects in the US and Germany. One of the countries and is growing into a global blockchain development center.