Lawmakers turn to blockchain for help in running Spanish gov’t

Spain is showing a great deal of support for the blockchain. Several companies in the country, including major banks, have already started working with the technology and the government even talked about offering tax breaks to blockchain companies and cryptocurrency exchanges earlier in the year. Now, Spanish lawmakers are proposing using the blockchain for the country’s public administration.

According to the Spanish-language cryptocurrency website CriptoNoticias, 133 deputies from the Partido Popular (Popular Party, PP), the country’s ruling government party, are backing a bill that would use the blockchain for government operations. The bill was submitted on June 22 and published on the legislative branch’s website four days later.
The purpose of using the blockchain is to increase transparency for both the public and the political arenas while being a tool to increase efficiency. Spain’s Congress has yet to review the bill and the website indicated that that the bill is still pending review by other deputies.

The initiative by the PP is in line with others that have been introduced by Spanish lawmakers. Members of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Workers Socialist Party, PSOE) introduced bill to the Senate in March that would authorize a study of trends and effects of cryptocurrency adoptions. The study would be based on research of how other countries were identifying and regulating the industry.

The Partido Ciudadanos (Citizens Party, CP), also introduced its own bill at the same time that the PSOE was introducing its bill. The bill by the CP seeks clarification on what obligations exist for financial institutions in dealing with cryptocurrencies.

None of the bills has yet to be fully addressed and decided by the Spanish government; however, answers are expected by the end of the year.

Spain’s National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) is also pushing for stronger regulation of the cryptocurrency industry. It has proposed several changes to the country’s legal framework on a national and regional level, as well as on an international level. According to the CNMV, the agency indicated that it is important to create regulations that can span all of Europe so that investors have a clear understanding of how to work with digital currencies, and so that governments can determine how to act on digital assets.