The strategy points to the efforts
of various teams involved in the topic of blockchain, such as the working group
on distributed ledgers and blockchain established within the distributed
ledgers stream of the Task Force “From a Paper to a Digital Poland” operating
under the auspices of the Digital Affairs Committee of the Council of Ministers.
So far most of the results produced by such teams have been exclusively
academic or theoretical, even though some of the projects have had practical
potential in fields also covered by SRRK.

One of the calls for action
included in SRRK directly addresses this group of technologies, defined as “introduction
of a legal framework for distributed ledger technology (DLT) and positioning of
cryptographic assets on the Polish market.” According to the strategy, within
the next few years development of EU regulations should consolidate the
positioning of cryptographic assets (a term which the strategy apparently uses
to refer primarily to financial instruments in cryptographic form, such as blockchain
tokens), “with settlement to and from fiduciary currencies or using token
swaps.” The strategy thus suggests analysing the possibilities for using DLT on
the capital market and proposes a specific project in this area, a national
pilot programme to evaluate solutions for securities of private companies using
permissioned blockchain.

SRRK also suggests that experiences
gained through this project should be exploited by framing future regulations on
blockchain and tokenisation at the EU level, expressly referring to “lobbying
in Brussels.” Under this strategy, introduction of blockchain technologies in
Poland should proceed hand in hand with the development of relevant regulations,
while ensuring adoption of an appropriate approach by the European Union.

Elsewhere SRRK expands on the
aspect of exploiting blockchain technologies for secondary trading of
securities of private companies, calling for “establishment of legal,
regulatory and operational grounds for launching private markets for
peer-to-peer retail trading, functioning under various models, using modern
technologies such as blockchain, for qualified counterparties,” and expressly
referring to the institution of the new simple stock company in this context.

The final version of the strategy
also maintains the plan to introduce a regulatory sandbox for FinTech businesses.
Although this demand addresses the market for financial innovations more
broadly, in Poland it was strongly recommended by the blockchain sector as far
back as 2016. In this sense, a regulatory sandbox is also a major topic from
the perspective of blockchain solutions, although the strategy does not outline
the details for this solution, which could vary.

The strategy also calls for
consideration of applying solutions involving implementation of blockchain technology
in the context of treasury savings products, particularly treasury bonds (also
in the context of tokenisation of bonds), as well as use of blockchain in
settlements for OTC derivative instruments. The latter proposal is justified by
how it would raise the competitiveness of the Polish market by supporting
solutions fostering further growth in transaction and post-transaction
infrastructure for derivatives not subject to mandatory central settlement. This
involves conducting a feasibility study for use of blockchain (or other modern
technology) in bilateral settlement of derivatives transactions, which technology
could contribute to development of the competitive advantage and attractiveness
of the Polish market.

The blockchain-related plans and postulates set forth in the Polish Capital Markets Strategy are interesting and ambitious. So far they remain at a fairly general level, but this is natural for a document of a strategic nature. Further actions will show to what degree these proposals take hold in practice.

Jacek Czarnecki