When you separate blockchain from crypto, you turn it into a glorified database, leaving out all the exciting possibilities, says Turkish law expert Elçin Karatay, who spoke at an event in Istanbul.
Because Turkey is a country that saw Bitcoin (BTC) hit an all-time high on a very different date than most of the rest of the world, it can help us understand how we should regulate cryptocurrencies in countries that aren’t always stable.
A crypto law is in the works, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan. The Turkish Parliament invited a group of local crypto experts to meet with them in order to better understand what people want.
It was Elçin Karatay, one of the people at the meeting in Ankara, who told Cointelegraph what he thought.
Karatay is a founding member of the Fintech Association Turkey. He is also a managing partner at Solak and Partners law firm, where he is in charge of the business.
She said that the popular “blockchain is good, crypto is bad” narrative was wrong. She said that the blockchain alone does not need a full legal review because it would be reduced to an important database technology if crypto was removed from it:
“All the opportunities created by this industry, just like all the risks, manifest themselves in the fields where crypto and blockchain go hand in hand.”
It leads to either total crypto bans or a legalized “lite” version of crypto that doesn’t have any of the “soul of decentralization” left in it, she said.
Karatay said that balance is very important when it comes to setting up rules for crypto.
“If you only focus on eliminating risks associated with a specific industry in regulatory efforts, you would also eliminate any potential benefits and opportunities that would otherwise be offered by the same industry.”
It’s important to have rules in place for the Turkish blockchain ecosystem that encourage innovation and protect people’s rights, Karatay said.
During the meeting, each person talked about how to do things from their own point of view.
Lawmakers didn’t say anything because the goal of the meeting was to hear what the crypto community thought.
Karatay gave real examples of how to balance the rules for cryptocurrencies during the meeting.
She told them how the European Union’s proposed law would deal with crypto-related funds and how to tell between security, utility, and asset-based tokens.
Another reason why limiting and “extreme” regulation would not be efficient: She used this time to explain why that wouldn’t work.
Cryptocurrency experts were invited to a meeting with lawmakers, which Karatay thought was a good move toward a more balanced regulatory approach. Karatay said the meeting, which might be the first of many, was positive.
For a quick recap, there isn’t any official regulation in Turkey, even though President Recep Tayyip Erdoan has been very critical of crypto.
Cryptocurrencies have been banned as a payment method since April 2021 because they aren’t money.
