Hester Peirce, commissioner at the United States securities regulator, has urged for a less cautious approach towards innovation in the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) space on the regulator's part. The Financial Times reported on her remarks on June 2.

Per the report, the Security and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Peirce called on her co-commissioners to allow for innovation in the ETF space by lessening their caution.

She reportedly commented on the SEC's approach towards this category of highly regulated financial derivatives, noting that the SEC is "still smothering ETFs with personalised attention as if they were infants."

Peirce also noted that she believes the regulator was wrong in its decision to reject the bitcoin (BTC)-based ETF application introduced by the Winklevoss twins, who are also founders of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange. According to Peirce, an ETF would encourage institutional investors to participate in the cryptocurrency market.

The CEO of world's third-largest asset manager, State Street Global Advisers, Cyrus Taraporevala commented to the Financial Times:

"If something does go awry with them, then the whole industry gets painted with the same brush. [...] We do not do inverse ETFs or leveraged ETFs. That will be the case as long as I am in my role."

In 2010, the SEC reportedly banned leveraged and inverse ETFs, presumably because they can produce particularly large losses, the Financial Times notes. Still, Peirce noted that other types of mutual funds also use derivatives to amplify their exposure, and it was clear that unsophisticated retail investors are not the target for leveraged ETFs. She reportedly commented:

"The unwillingness to allow more competitors to offer geared ETFs seems to be another example of denying or curtailing access to a product that would be useful to some investors."

The Financial Times further notes that the U.S. regulator in question is also expected to introduce new ETF regulation, which is expected to speed up innovation in the space.

As Cointelegraph reported at the end of May, the Japanese Financial Services Agency has also showed a cautious approach towards cryptocurrency-based ETFs, according to comments from the finance committee of the upper house of the National Diet.

A recently released Cointelegraph analysis writes that part of the crypto community believes bitcoin's volatility could render the odds of an ETF based on the coin being approved significantly lower.

China's Center for Information and Industry Development has released its latest rankings of 35 crypto projects that were evaluated over the past two months. While several top positions remain unchanged, Bitcoin has climbed up the overall ranking.

New Rankings From China
The Center for Information and Industry Development (CCID), under China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, released the 12th update of its crypto project rankings Thursday. The number of projects evaluated was unchanged from the previous rankings published in March. The center also announced that starting this month the rankings will be adjusted every two months instead of monthly.

In addition to the overall ranking, the CCID published three others based on basic technology, applicability, and creativity sub-categories. EOS tops the list overall, followed by Tron, and Ethereum. The center started ranking Tron in February, debuting at number two overall and has remained at that position ever since. BTC now ranks 12th, up three places from the 15th place in the previous ranking. BCH has also improved, currently occupying the 29th spot overall, up from the 31st place previously.

"The results show that the world's three major Dapp platforms — EOS, Tron, and Ethereum — remain ranked in the top three, [and] the scores are 148.5, 144.1 and 136.6," the CCID wrote.

The center describes itself as "a first-class scientific research institution directly under the administration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China." The first crypto ranking was released in May last year. The assessment is carried out by the CCID (Qingdao) blockchain research institute, an entity established by the CCID, in collaboration with multiple organizations such as the CCID think tank and the China Software Evaluation Center. "The result of this assessment will allow the CCID group to provide better technical consulting services for government agencies, business enterprises, research institutes, and technology developers," the center previously explained.

Sub-Rankings
The overall ranking is based on the total index scores of 35 crypto projects. The total index of each crypto project is the weighted average of its three sub-indices: the basic technology index, the applicability index, and the creativity index. The basic technology sub-index accounts for 64% of the total index, while the applicability sub-index accounts for 20% and the creativity index 16%.

"The basic technology sub-index mainly assesses the level of technical realization of the public chain," the center described, adding that the key areas evaluated under this category "include the function, performance, safety and decentralization of the public chain." The top five crypto projects in this category are EOS, Tron, Steem, Bitshares, and Gxchain.

The creativity sub-index "focuses on continuous innovation in the public chain, including developer size, code updates, and code impact," the center detailed. In this category, the top five crypto projects are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Lisk, EOS and Tron.

The applicability sub-index "mainly evaluates the comprehensive level of public chain support for practical applications," the center continued. "The assessment includes four aspects: node deployment, wallet application, development support and application implementation." For this category, the top five crypto projects are Ethereum, Neo, Nebulas, Tron, and Ontology, which are unchanged from the previous ranking for this sub-category. "However, the data shows that the applicability indices of only 11 of the 35 public chains have increased, and the overall index has declined compared to the previous period," the CCID noted.

As the G20 summit approaches, member countries have been discussing how to implement the standards set by intergovernmental organizations such as the Financial Action Task Force. While there may be some challenges in complying with the standards, the European Central Bank says the risks crypto assets pose to the euro area's financial stability are manageable.


The G20 countries have reaffirmed their support for the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as the global standard-setting body in areas such as anti-money laundering. They have also agreed to follow the FATF recommendations including those concerning crypto assets.

The FATF held its annual Private Sector Consultative Forum in Austria earlier this month with its members and over 300 representatives from the private sector participating. Members of the FATF are 36 countries and two international organizations including the European Commission. The FATF explained:

The discussions focused on the mapping of virtual asset services and business models … and on the implementation of specific FATF recommendations.

A FATF meeting
In its April report to the G20, the FATF outlined its work on crypto asset standards and promised to update its guidance "to continue assisting jurisdictions and the private sector, in implementing a risk-based approach to regulating virtual asset service providers, including their supervision and monitoring," the report describes. "This will help countries in exercising oversight of this sector." While emphasizing various risks such as money laundering, the FATF also recognized:

Technological innovations, including those underlying virtual assets … may deliver significant benefits to the financial system and the broader economy.

Russia Has Issues to Resolve
Among countries that have announced their plans to implement the standards set by the FATF is Russia. The country has yet to finalize the regulatory framework for cryptocurrency, which President Vladimir Putin originally said must be done by July last year. Since no crypto regulation had been introduced, the Russian president signed another order for his country's crypto regulation to be implemented by July this year.

However, another delay may also be in the cards as the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Market, Anatoly Aksakov, has revealed that "The adoption of the law on digital financial assets is 'stuck' because of the requirements of the FATF," Tass reported on May 21. Speaking at the Russian Stock Market 2019 conference, he explained that the requirements will either be implemented in the law on digital financial assets or in a separate bill, elaborating:

The law on digital financial assets has been suspended … There were FATF decisions that require us to resolve issues related to bitcoins and so on.

The news outlet also reported first deputy chairman of the Bank of Russia, Olga Skorobogatova, indicating that the law on digital financial assets could be adopted in the Spring session. "The law on digital financial assets, on crowdfunding, etc., all these bills are in a fairly high degree of readiness," she told the State Duma. "Colleagues from the State Duma committees are very helpful, we expect that these laws can be passed during the Spring session." She further stressed that these laws "are extremely important for the country and will provide an opportunity to implement new projects."

Japan Collaborating With Other G20 Countries
The host of the June G20 summit, Japan has been actively working on implementing global standards on crypto assets. Last week, the country's House of Representatives passed a crypto bill with a number of required resolutions. According to Impress publication, one of them reads:

We have fully grasped the regulatory trends of G20 countries, and cooperated with each country to achieve international harmony.

In April, local media reported that the Japanese government is preparing to offer a handbook to the G20 countries to help them with their own crypto regulations. This matter will be discussed at the June summit along with a wide range of regulatory measures relating to crypto assets.

In December last year, Japan's top financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), released a report stating:

To manage and mitigate the risks emerging from virtual assets, countries should ensure that virtual asset service providers are regulated for AML/CFT purposes.

They should also be "licensed or registered and subject to effective systems for monitoring and ensuring compliance with the relevant measures called for in the FATF recommendations," the report details.

South Korea Wants Regulatory Consistency
South Korea has announced several times that it will comply with the unified crypto regulatory standards. At the FSB plenary meeting in April, the progress report to be delivered to the upcoming G20 meetings in Japan, vulnerabilities in the global financial system, and global standards of crypto regulation were discussed. "Transnational cooperation is necessary to regulate virtual currencies," Choi Jong-ku, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, was quoted as saying. He emphasized the importance for each country to consistently implement international standards prepared by the FATF "to minimize regulatory inconsistencies."

FSC Chairman Choi Jong-ku
Possible Challenges Ahead
Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis provided feedback to the FATF on its guidance for crypto assets in April. "FATF's guidance, as it is currently drafted, would have profound implications for the cryptocurrency industry," the firm wrote.

"There are clear technical obstacles that prevent cryptocurrency businesses from being able to comply with these standards," Chainalysis detailed. Citing that "Cryptocurrencies were originally designed as a peer-to-peer financial system that has no central authority and no intermediaries," the firm asserted that in most cases crypto exchanges "are unable to tell if a beneficiary is using another exchange or a personal wallet," adding:

Requiring a transmission of information identifying the parties is not technically feasible.

The firm proceeded to discuss "technical opportunities," suggesting that in order to meet the FATF's goals, "Cryptocurrency exchanges can use the transparency of the shared ledger to form an effective risk-based approach." They explained that it should be the job of exchanges to collect and store know your customer (KYC) information of each transaction's originator, and clarified that "While the transactions themselves are public, exchanges should also link their customers with their specific transactions as this information is not available on the public ledger."


Another point highlighted by the firm, which they referred to as "unintended consequences," is that "There is no infrastructure to transmit information between cryptocurrency businesses today, and no one has the ability to change how cryptocurrency blockchains work." The firm elaborated:

Forcing onerous investment and friction onto regulated businesses, who are critical allies to law enforcement, could reduce their prevalence, drive activity to decentralized and peer-to-peer exchanges, and lead to de-risking by financial institutions.

Chainalysis noted that "Such measures would decrease the transparency that is currently available to law enforcement."

Manageable Financial Stability Risks
The European Central Bank (ECB) monitors crypto assets and analyzes potential implications for monetary policy and the risks they may pose on market infrastructures, payments, and the stability of the financial system. Its report published earlier this month entitled "Crypto-Assets: Implications for financial stability, monetary policy, and payments and market infrastructures" summarizes the outcome of the analysis of its Crypto Assets Task Force. The report reads:

At present, crypto-assets' implications for and/or risks to the financial stability of the euro area, monetary policy, and payments and market infrastructures are limited or manageable.

Noting that crypto assets cannot be used to conduct money settlements in important financial market infrastructures in the EU, the bank states that "they do not qualify as securities … [and] central securities depositories (CSDs) cannot undertake settlement of crypto-assets."

Even if crypto-based products were to be cleared by central counterparties, they would need to be authorized and to satisfy existing regulatory requirements, the bank clarified, adding that "Even at their peak in early 2018 the outstanding value of crypto-assets was too small to give rise to concerns for the EU financial system and the economy." Stressing that "Crypto-assets market developments are dynamic and links to the financial sector and the economy may increase in the future," the bank claims:

It is therefore important that the ECB continue to monitor the crypto-assets phenomenon, raise awareness and develop preparedness for any adverse scenarios, in cooperation with other relevant authorities.

The ECB concluded that "Financial institutions investing directly or indirectly in crypto assets should have in place relevant governance arrangements, also in line with the licensing criteria, and commensurate to the materiality of investments in crypto-assets and/or crypto-assets-related activities." The bank added that many factors ranging from market developments to "unintended 'legitimising' effects" of crypto regulation could result in greater exposures to crypto assets.

Dutch authorities arrested a 33-year-old businessperson for allegedly defrauding investors through a crypto mining fraud.

According to local reports, Dutch tax authority's investigative department, FIOD, made the arrest. The suspect was a director of two private limited companies, which he allegedly used for money laundering, fraud and forgery activities.

The man started his company back in 2017. Through the company, the suspect received money from investors who thought they were buying computers for buying bitcoins. The suspect collected about €2 million ($2.2 million) from the investors. Investors were promised returns of 0.3 Bitcoin Core (BTC) per month (about $2,389 at current prices). Investors became worried when they failed to get the returns or their mining computers.

Upon investigations, authorities discovered that the BTC mining machines were probably never even purchased. Initially, police had searched his house in November 2018 and discovered luxury goods such as bags, dirt bike, and shoes, and understand that he also used the money on motorbikes and gambling.

Notably, one of the suspect's BTC mining companies, Koniz Trading, was declared bankrupt last year after customers' accused him of fraud, according to reports by the NL Times.

The FIOD added that fighting money laundering is the priority for the government as it is one of the "serious" crimes in the country.

Earlier this year, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the nation's central bank, and the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets published a report that suggested that fiat-to-crypto exchanges and custody solution providers must be licensed as cryptocurrencies carry "high financial crime risks." In their report, these authorities explained:

"These risks must be addressed effectively, which can be achieved as a result of the international coordination of countermeasures that AMLD5 [the Fifth European Anti-Money Laundering Directive] provides."

Other countries, notably Malta, have already started to warn its investors on crypto fraud. Late last month, authorities in that country came out to issue guidelines that will help investors identify fraudulent crypto projects. This was done through a report released by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA).

Among the issues addressed in the report, is the need for investors to protect themselves from engaging in suspicious projects, especially those that promise huge returns.

Every year on May 22, the cryptocurrency community marks this day in 2010 when Laszlo Hanyecz purchased two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins. To help you celebrate Pizza Day, here are a variety of options to buy to pizza with bitcoin cash (BCH) in different countries around the world.

How to Buy Pizza With BCH on Bitcoin Pizza Day 2019
One of the simplest ways to pay for pizza with bitcoin cash (BCH) in the U.S. is to get a gift card for you favorite joint on the Bitcoin.com Store. Here you can order cards for use in major national chains such as Domino's and Papa John's as well as smaller regional options.

To find a place selling pizza for BCH in Europe you can check out your country's local branch of Takeaway.com. The Amsterdam-headquartered company operates over a dozen international food delivery websites and apps and a number of them accept BCH such as Germany's Lieferando.de, Poland's Pyszne.pl, and the Netherlands' Thuisbezorgd.nl.

If you are living or visiting Seoul, South Korea, you should check out Shuttle Delivery, which enables users to spend BCH in more than 200 restaurants in the area. This South Korean food delivery platform offers an app in Korean and English and supports Android and iOS devices.

To find a nearby pizza-serving BCH-friendly establishment wherever you are in the world, use the Marco Coino app.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently reviewing three bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), one of which was filed last week to track the prices of two cryptocurrencies. An SEC commissioner said at the Consensus conference on Monday that the time is right for a bitcoin ETF, as the commission is due to make a decision on one of them next week.

At the Consensus 2019 conference in New York on Monday, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, also known as "crypto mom," discussed the regulatory environment for bitcoin ETFs. Expressing her dissatisfaction with the current law, she asserted that the SEC should do more to provide a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency including rules around safe harbor. Decrypt quoted her as saying:

I thought the time was right a year ago — even longer than that … My first chance to comment on it was a year ago … Certainly the time is right, but there are still questions floating around the SEC that need to be answered as much as possible by you all.

Peirce then encouraged the audience to write to the SEC to help them understand the market. One issue she noted was market manipulation, which "is a concern that people keep raising at the SEC," she shared. "Other issues like custody issues [also] come up a lot."

Her comments at Consensus echo her speech at the Securities Enforcement Forum which took place on May 9. "The problem is that the securities laws do not cease to operate as a new industry develops," she explained. "Consequently, individuals and companies in the industry must comply with our securities laws or risk becoming the subject of an enforcement action. It is therefore our duty as a regulator to provide the public with clear guidance as to how people can comply with our law. We have not yet fulfilled this duty." The commissioner additionally described:

It is not the SEC's overzealous action that has stifled the crypto industry, but its unwillingness to take meaningful action at all.

Peirce also expressed concern that the U.S. is falling behind other forward-thinking countries. "Our country has always been a country where innovation can really thrive," she opined Monday. "I worry that a lot of the activities are now happening offshore. I want the US to be the market for innovation."

The SEC staff recently issued a 14-page document detailing a framework to assist issuers with conducting a Howey analysis to evaluate whether token offerings are securities. It details features of an offering and actions by an issuer that could signal that the offering is likely a securities offering. Peirce expressed her worry, however, that this framework "could raise more questions and concerns than it answers."

The commissioner previously said she believes the SEC has no jurisdiction to look at the underlying asset when considering whether to approve a proposed rule change for an ETF. She has also emphasized that excessive regulation could hurt innovation such as cryptocurrency.

The SEC's Senior Advisor for Digital Assets and Innovation, Valerie Szczepanik, explained that the agency is moving slowly on cryptocurrency regulations and cryptocurrency-based products because it needs to be cautious. Szczepanik coordinates efforts across all SEC divisions and offices regarding the application of U.S. securities laws to emerging digital asset technologies and innovations, including cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings.

In his speech at the SEC Sparks conference on April 8, Chairman Jay Clayton said one of the areas the commission has focused its attention on due to heightened risks is "digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, coins, and tokens." At the Consensus Invest conference in November last year, he revealed the key upgrades he needed to see before the SEC could consider approving its first bitcoin ETF such as better market surveillance and safe custody of crypto assets.

SEC Chairman Jay Clayton

Bitwise Bitcoin ETF: August 14

One of the proposals being reviewed by the SEC is for the listing and trading of shares issued by Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Trust filed by NYSE Arca Inc. on Jan. 28. This proposed rule change was published in the Federal Register on Feb. 15. On March 29, the SEC designated May 16 as the day to make its decision on this proposal. However, on May 7, the exchanged filed Amendment No. 1 to the proposed rule change, replacing the original one in its entirety. According to the amended registration statement filed with the SEC:

The trust will hold bitcoin … [and] will store its bitcoin in custody at a regulated third-party custodian, and will not use derivatives that may subject the trust to counterparty and credit risks.

Furthermore, the company explained that "the trust will not directly purchase or sell bitcoin. Instead, authorized participants will deliver bitcoin to the trust in exchange for shares of the trust, and the trust will deliver bitcoin to authorized participants when those authorized participants redeem shares of the trust."

The filing also details that "in seeking to ensure that the price of the trust's shares is reflective of the actual bitcoin market, the trust will value its shares daily based on prices drawn from ten bitcoin exchanges … [which] represent substantially all of the economically significant spot trading volume on bitcoin exchanges around the world."

On March 22, Bitwise tweeted clarifying that "The exact methodology largely mirrors the settlement pricing methodology of CME futures, which we believe has the correct construction." The company added that the exchanges are Binance, Bifinex, Bitflyer, Bitstamp, Bittrex, Coinbase Pro, Gemini, Itbit, Kraken, and Poloniex, noting that five of them "have implemented sophisticated market surveillance tools to prevent market manipulation and bad behavior."

Since the company filed an amendment, the commission began soliciting public comments on the new proposal on May 14. So far, 25 comments have been received on this proposal. Securities lawyer Jake Chervinsky remarked:

The new deadline is August 14. The SEC can delay one more time to a final deadline of October 13.

Vaneck Solidx Bitcoin ETF: May 21

The next proposal for a bitcoin ETF under review by the SEC is the high-profile Vaneck Solidx bitcoin ETF. Cboe BZX Exchange Inc. originally filed the proposed rule change to list and trade shares issued by the Vaneck Solidx Bitcoin Trust in June last year. However, it withdrew the proposal on Jan. 22 due to the U.S. government shutdown which affected the SEC.

The exchange refiled the proposed rule change for the same ETF on Jan. 30 which was published in the Federal Register on Feb. 20. On March 29, the commission extended the time period to review this ETF to May 21. At press time, 24 comments have been received for this new proposed rule change, far fewer than the 1,600 plus comments received for the previous filing that was withdrawn. The registration statement explains:

The investment objective of the trust is for the shares to reflect the performance of the price of bitcoin, less the expenses of the trust's operations.

This trust intends to achieve its objective by investing all of its assets substantially "in bitcoin traded primarily in the over-the-counter markets, and may also invest in bitcoin traded on domestic and international bitcoin exchanges," the filing states. "The trust will be responsible for custody of the trust's bitcoin."

Solidx Management Llc is the sponsor of the trust, with Delaware Trust Company as the trustee and the Bank of New York Mellon as the administrator and transfer agent. The bank will also serve as the custodian with respect to cash of the trust since it will occasionally hold cash for short periods in connection with the purchase and sale of bitcoin, and to pay trust expenses. Van Eck Securities Corporation will provide assistance in the marketing of the shares.

Crescent Crypto Index Fund: Just Filed

The third bitcoin ETF-related filing which the SEC is reviewing at press time is by the United States Commodity Index Funds Trust. The company filed a registration statement with the SEC on Thursday for Crescent Crypto Index Fund, sponsored by the United States Commodity Funds (USCF). It will be traded on the NYSE Arca stock exchange under the symbol XBET. According to the document:

The investment objective of XBET is for the daily changes in percentage terms of its per share net asset value to reflect the daily changes in percentage terms of the Crescent Crypto Core II Index (the 'CCINDX'), less XBET's expenses.

The new index seeks "to track the performance of a market capitalization weighted portfolio of bitcoin and ether," the company describes, noting that it "has limited history and is currently under development and subject to further input from the Crescent Crypto Index Committee." This index "is based on various inputs which may include price data from various third-party exchanges and markets."

The trust and fund are managed and controlled by USCF, a limited liability company that is registered as a commodity pool operator with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and is a member of the National Futures Association. USCF will employ Crescent Crypto Manager Llc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Crescent, as co-portfolio manager to XBET.

SEC Decision Timeline

Whenever a proposed rule change is filed with the SEC, it will be published in the Federal Register which serves as the key start date for the SEC's ETF approval timeline.

The proposal for the Vaneck Solidx ETF was filed on Jan. 30 and published in the Federal Register on Feb. 20. The Bitwise ETF proposal was filed on Jan. 28 and published in the Federal Register on Feb. 15. The rule change for the Crescent ETF has yet to be published in the Federal Register.

After the proposed rule change has been published in the Federal Register, Section 19(b)(2) of the Securities Exchange Act provides that "within 45 days of the publication of notice of the filing of a proposed rule change, or within such longer period up to 90 days … the commission shall either approve the proposed rule change, disapprove the proposed rule change, or institute proceedings to determine whether the proposed rule change should be disapproved."

According to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the SEC can extend the time to make a decision on an ETF up to 240 days after the date of its publication in the Register. If the SEC has not made a decision after 240 days for any reasons, the ETF would be automatically approved.

However, Chervinsky explained that it is extremely unlikely the SEC will let such a decision go to automatic approval, noting that the SEC would likely have measures in place to avoid missing such important deadlines. Further, if a bitcoin ETF is automatically approved, it can easily be undone after the emergency that prevents the agency from making a proper decision is over. The lawyer elaborated:

The SEC doesn't have the power to extend the 240-day deadline. The statute absolutely prohibits any further delays.

As for the three proposals in consideration, the SEC is due to make a decision to either approve, deny, or delay its decision on the Vaneck Solidx bitcoin ETF proposal on May 21, having just delayed its decision on the proposal for the Bitwise bitcoin ETF. Chervinsky estimates that if the commission decides to further delay its decision on the Vaneck Solidx ETF, then the new decision date will be Aug. 19. The final dates after 240 days will be Oct. 13 for the Bitwise proposal and Oct. 18 for the Vaneck Solidx proposal. He also emphasized that the agency could ask the sponsors to withdraw and refile, which will start the clock all over again.

While there are many countries around the world that are cracking down on cryptocurrency markets or wary about how to embrace and regulate them, there are other companies that are receiving support from the government due to the shifting attitudes on the potential of blockchain technology. Recently, Billon Group was awarded over $2.1 million by the European Union (EU) to develop a blockchain-based document management system.

The money comes specifically from the European Commission's SME instrument program, which is part of a larger overall Horizon 2020 program. Horizon 2020 describes itself as the "biggest EU Research and Innovation program" ever. A total of 64 organizations were awarded in this particular phase of the program, including other blockchain-related companies such as Settlemint, a blockchain software company, and KYC (Know-Your-Customer) service AUTHENTEQ.

Billon will not only be digitizing paper documents, but encrypting them, as well. The idea is to increase transparency in efficiency with respect to document storage and management by placing these documents on a distributed ledger. This can reduce cost for a variety of organizations and corporations by as much as 50%, according to the Billon Group. The solution will also be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as well as other EU regulations. The GDPR is a regulation adopted in 2016 that relates to overall data regulation and personal privacy that applies to all EU member states.

The company has already been adopted by the Polish Credit Office (BIK), which increases efficiency with respect to the Polish banking sector. The CEO of Billon Group, Wojtek Kostrzewa, pointed out how the company is working on disrupting the document management sector. He states: "Today's document management industry has struggled with fulfilling regulatory and customer requirements related to protecting document identity content, and to provide customers with control over data they choose to share or delete. With the funding from Horizon 2020, Billon will fulfill MIFiD2 and GDPR requirements with innovation that puts a customer in control of their own data and documents."