Digital Affairs – Chancellery
of the Prime Minister

The Working Group on DLT and Blockchain is working to ensure conditions for the development of blockchain solutions in various sectors of the economy, as well as in the public sector, by identifying market areas where state involvement might be both expected and necessary. It serves as a platform for cross-sectoral cooperation, where different points of view, interests, as well as legal, regulatory, organisational and cultural conditions can be explored and discussed upon.

The Group’s basic form of operation is based around regular meetings of teams focused on selected areas, with themes proposed by the participants, who try to organise a competent and representative expert group. The meetings are also an opportunity to exchange information about the dynamically changing environment of blockchain technology applications and regulatory trends. 2019 offered many opportunities for such work.

As far as the Polish market was concerned, among the subjects we discussed were the benefits of introducing the concept of a Simple Joint Stock Company to the Polish legal system. We established a platform for discussion on the capital market development strategy, tokenisation of securities and derivatives, barriers to the development of new payment instruments, as well as problems resulting from insufficient technological neutrality of the GDPR. The Group also served as expert support for the development of the private market project concept at the Warsaw Stock Exchange. 

In the international context, we had the opportunity to exchange opinions on the regulatory proposals put forth by the European financial sector regulators, take part in the debate of central banks on digital stablecoin currencies, we also talked about Polish contributions to international initiatives, including the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP), which is currently working on launching EBSI infrastructure for testing cross-border projects. Polish companies are encouraged to participate in the work of the INATBA sector association, whose initiators aspire to create a standardisation platform for the development of blockchain applications.

Within our sectoral teams, we made an attempt at organising a debate on the conditions of using blockchain in energy, healthcare, insurance, real estate, as well as in research and development, trying to identify barriers and pinpoint topics, which could potentially result in a successful pilot implementation.

 The work of the Working Group carried out in 2019 resulted in four “White Paper” documents:

1. Token as Bond – a document analysing the possibility of using a technological form of a token for bonds – well-known and popular form of debt securities, widely circulated on the market. The new regulations, which have been in force since July 2019, have all but blocked such possibilities in Poland. The White Paper focuses on legal issues, while also indicating the potential benefits of issuing a token that would be a bond. It is thus intended to open a discussion on this subject in the institutions that supervise the development of the financial market.
2. Electronic promissory notes and bills of exchange using blockchain technology – a document concerning the possibilities of getting rid of the material form of promissory notes and bills of exchange using blockchain technology. With the advent of electronic market and trading, the material form of promissory notes and bills of exchange has become a significant obstacle, especially given the fact that it is one of the oldest and best-known payment instruments. The concept of using the legal framework created by the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR) has emerged during the work.  The significance of this issue exceeds the topic at hand, since the adoption of the MLETR concerns all other documents, which are used in trade exchange (letter of credit, bills of lading, waybills, debentures, etc.)
3. Electronic seal – In business transactions, declarations of will of legal entities are guaranteed by natural persons duly authorised to represent them and, if necessary, also duly authenticated. Digitalisation enables accelerating processes in trade, opening up many new and flexible opportunities, including automating numerous activities with legal implications and ramifications. In the case of Internet of Things (IoT) systems, numerous processes are taking place that have legal ramifications of agreements in trade, in spite of the fact of them occurring without direct human participation, solely in the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) model. Some systems also have a certain degree of autonomy and this trend is set to grow more popular, particularly in connection with the development of artificial intelligence (AI). The document outlines two main challenges: (i) Avoiding time-consuming verification of the authorisations of persons making digital declarations of will on behalf of a legal entity, and (ii) Ensuring the authentication of automated declarations of will.
4. GDPR and Blockchain – in spite of the fact that the blockchain technology, especially some of its features, such as immutability and open character of all ledgers – seem to stand in opposition to the objectives of GDPR, further development of solutions based on this technology might contribute to enhancing protection of personal data and ensuring their free flow. Thanks to the use of blockchain technology and DLT, entities can regain control over their own personal data and decide on the scope, recipients and time they are shared, in a way that they deem safe and secure. The document, which is currently in the process of being written, outlines the general aspects of the GDPR, including the possibility of using the exemptions envisioned in the Regulation in the general economic interest.
    

Contact: dlt@mc.gov.pl  Piotr Rutkowski

Grupa robocza ds. rejestrów rozproszonych i blockchain - podsumowanie 2019