The European Parliament recently adopted a resolution to explore the potential regulation of “distributed ledger technologies”—a.k.a. blockchain technology. The resolution emphasized the need for harmonization within the union, compliance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and protecting against fraud related to initial coin offerings (ICOs).

The resolution follows in the footsteps of the Digital Single Market, one of the European Commission’s 10 political priorities in 2015. The DSM policy seeks to “remove key differences between online and offline worlds, breaking down the barriers to cross-border online activity” so that businesses, governments and the people they serve can profit fully from the advantages of digital technology without giving up data privacy and security.