By George Ward
With the ever-changing technological landscape and the need to ensure regulatory compliance in the virtual ecosystem, the European Union (EU) commissioner for competition has called for changes. Margrethe Vestager suggests addressing the implications of emerging technologies like the metaverse and the rave of the moment, ChatGPT.
Assessing The Risks Of The Digital Economy
At the Keystone Conference on competition policy, Vestager noted that the transition and shift into the digital economy brought attendant opportunities and risks for those involved. She believes that legislation needs more supply to checkmate technological innovations.
Vestager added that the EU was too slow to act, which will serve as an essential lesson for the commission in the future. The EU commissioner for competition explained that the legislative and enforcement procedures would continue to lag behind technological innovations.
However, the commission has been anticipating and planning for such changes. She opined that it is time for the EU to explore what healthy competition should be like in the metaverse.
According to Vestager, from May 2023, the EU Commission will implement antitrust investigations targeted at the Facebook marketplace and how its parent company, Meta, utilizes rival data. The European Blockchain Regulatory Sandbox marked its launch date on February 15, with the anniversary providing an avenue for regulatory discussions for 20 projects annually till 2026.
Lawmakers in the EU bloc are reportedly exploring using zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) for digital identifications. According to reports, the new digital ID will allow EU citizens to verify their identity online.
The new development will ensure that citizens do not need commercial service providers to authenticate their identity, a practice that has raised concerns over user privacy, security, and trust. ZKPs are gaining traction among researchers as the most effective means to ensure regulatory enforcement and privacy in the digital asset industry.
The Limits of EU’s MiCA Regulations
Since the EU deferred the final vote on the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) law to April 2023, analysts have started analyzing the situation. This is because the delay for the final decision started in November 2022, before its shift to February 2023.
However, last month’s delay was reportedly due to technical difficulties in using English as the sole language, considering that other member nations have their indigenous languages. As a result, the MiCA text will be translated to reflect all the EU’s official languages, which will happen in 2024.
Meanwhile, industry players are still determining if MiCA, with its existing imperfections, is genuinely qualified to be a comprehensive framework for the crypto industry. Nevertheless, the European Central Bank (ECB) president, Christine Lagarde, is reported to have revealed in the aftermath of the FTX collapse that there is likely to be a MiCA II.