Known as the Bitcoin Island, the Isle of Man is turning its attention to blockchain to boost its FinTech and digital payments sector as it continues its efforts at establishing digital businesses on the island.
After the Isle of Man’s Gambling Supervision Commission (GSC) and Treasury approved changes to the island’s gambling regulation last year, allowing currencies such as bitcoin to be accepted as cash, the island is hoping the adoption of blockchain applications will give the island the push it needs to further establish itself.
Brian Donegan, from the Isle of Man Government Department of Economic Development (DED), said to Silicon, though, that a lot of work still needs to be done with blockchain before the benefits can fully be realized.
Blockchain will continue to be an experimental technology, it isn’t complete. A lot of people are espousing the value of blockchain, and it’s a great piece of technology, but it is still in part experimental and it’s far from complete.
He adds that trust is a major factor to the development of blockchain, which is why the technology hasn’t been embraced as fully as people would like.
However, once a level of trust and security has been achieved, Donegan believes that in a year or two we could start to see a complete blockchain product evolve.
Embracing Blockchain
Despite being known as bitcoin’s distributed ledger in the early days of the digital currency’s existence, the blockchain has since slowly been embraced in several sectors as its benefits become widely known.
From banking to real estate, to the music industry and the airline industry, to healthcare and education, the blockchain is becoming widely accepted around the world.
The U.K. is once such location that is also embracing the technology.
By doing so, the country has become the lead hub for FinTech, which is seeing many companies setting up their companies in London.
This has also been highlighted by the fact that the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) revealed, in November, the first 24 companies that will be taking part in its FinTech regulatory sandbox.
By doing so, it is hoped that more businesses will establish themselves in the U.K. and know what regulations they are required to abide by.
As Donegan states, the U.K.’s understanding of the technology’s power and value has helped to establish the U.K. as a leading country as it keeps up-to-date with the latest developments making it an attractive location.
It speaks to the dynamism that’s in the fintech industry and the UK is just a fantastic place for fintech right now. It’s miles ahead of many of its international counterparts.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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