THE NEXT ERA OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY Mauritius – a growing Fintech hub
Since the early 1990s, the Republic of Mauritius has established itself as an International Financial Centre. The key was to establish a regulatory framework that would enable institutions in the industry to flourish within a clear and define eco-system. Despite globalisation and the increased competitivity in the industry, Mauritius has managed to grow both in terms of its reputation and substance within the Jurisdiction. We now have the reputation of a strong and well-regulated international centre with the ability to compete with jurisdictions such as Singapore.
Today marks the start of a new era. And this era relies on the foundation of Blockchain Technology. In layman’s words, Blockchain Technology can be defined as digital evergrowing list of data records. Such a list is comprised of many blocks of data, which are organized in chronological order and are linked and secured by cryptographic proofs. This technology can help to solve different kind of problems in the industrial sphere, such as trust, transparency, security, and reliability of data processing.
online, 3D universe that combines multiple different virtual spaces. You can think of it as a future iteration of the internet. The metaverse will allow users to work, meet, game, and socialize together in these 3D spaces. Banks such as HSBC and JP Morgan are now slowly introducing Meta Verse to connect with customers and business partners, preparing for a bigger shift, from physical interaction to digital interaction.
While we see the emergence of so many derivations from Blockchain Technologies, it is essential to understand the role of compliance and internal regulations for the success of any industry. The Republic of Mauritius has set the tone for a regulatory framework with the introduction of the Virtual Asset and Initial Token Offering Services Act of 2021 but this in itself is not enough. For the jurisdiction to attract major international virtual asset service providers, we must provide a stronger compliance framework.
Apricus International positions itself as a major compliance specialist both in the financial services industry and the virtual asset and token offering industry. We target companies which would have a strong compliance framework without jeopardising their commercial offer and hence making it too complex both administrative and others, for clients to engage those services. We ensure that the compliance culture is at the heart of the development of the industry. Our vision of the new era is that without compliance, it will only be short term and can be detrimental to the jurisdiction, both on the traditional financial industry and the virtual asset and token offering industry.
The blockchain technology has been most commonly utilised in the emergence of cryptocurrency, namely Bitcoin, but there are more to blockchain technology and there are more to cryptocurrency. Today, we are on the right side of history by being the generation and pioneers who would be able to make the most of blockchain technology. However, as every eco-system in the world be it in the financial industry or any other industry, it cannot succeed if it is not suitably regulated. A regulatory framework can be defined as being a set of rules that would oversee a system to firstly standardise the industry, and secondly deal with shortcomings. A regulatory framework should evolve as quickly as the industry and in this case, the emerging era of Blockchain Technologies requires constant evolution.
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In February 2022, the Parliament of the Republic of Mauritius voted the Virtual Asset and Initial Token Offering Services Act 2021. As quoted from the website of the Financial Services Commission, “The Act sets out a comprehensive legislative framework to regulate the business activities of virtual assets service providers and initial token offerings. It has been developed inter alia in accordance with international standards established by the Financial Action Task Force to manage, mitigate and prevent anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism risks associated with these emerging and innovative business activities.”
We pride ourselves in assisting them with the set up of their regulatory frameworks. The vision of Apricus International is “Inspire Companies to inculcate a compliance culture and recognise the importance of compliance and business performance.” Based on this vision, we aim at accompanying the evolution and growth of the NEW ERA while ensuring the rigidity of the compliance framework and commercial value of the offer of the industry.
In other words, Mauritius position itself as one of the first countries to regulate the virtual asset and token offering industry. This will be the foundation of another industry which can become as successful as the ‘International Financial Centre’ and provide employment to thousands of Mauritians.
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We also have the emergence of the Meta Verse, which is a concept of a persistent,
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