German Finance Regulator Chief on "Revolutionary" Blockchain

Felix Hufeld, president of the German Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), has said that blockchain technology is "revolutionary" and its applications could turn the entire financial sector "upside down."

These remarks were made during a speech at an event in Berlin last week, whereby he touched upon  the regulator's thinking on bitcoin and blockchain.

Despite the current hype around the bitcoin price and the boom of initial coin offerings (ICOs), he said, blockchain's ability to power distributed applications "could actually be revolutionary."

Hufeld explained "These apps are not only safe from failures of individual computers or providers, they also promote the development of a 'blockchain economy.'"

The chief of Germany's financial watchdog said that blockchain applications have promise in areas that lack "an effective control mechanisms or trustworthy institutions" such as in foreign trade or development aid.

In addition, BaFin issued new guidelines in February outlining how and when it would consider tokens issued during ICOs to be securities, saying it would take a case-by-case approach in determining the legal status of individual tokens.