The Indonesian Blockchain Conference (IBC) 2021 was successfully held by the Indonesian Blockchain Association (A-B-I or Asosiasi Blockchain Indonesia) on Monday (9/8). The annual conference organized by A-B-I attracted the public, industry players, practitioners, and academics to regulators in Indonesia. The rapid development of the Blockchain industry in Indonesia stimulated many innovative ideas in the Smart Regulation: Regulatory Framework for Blockchain-based Projects panel which was attended by: Dr. Jerry Sambuaga as Vice Minister of Trade Ministry, Dr. R. Edi Prio Pambudi, SE, MA as Expert Staff of Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Ms. Dwina Septiani Widjaya as President Director of PERURI, and Dr. Ir. I Nyoman Adhiarna, M.Eng as Acting Official Director Digital Economy of Ministry of Communication & Information Technology.

Vice Minister of Trade Ministry, Dr. Jerry Sambuaga expressed his hopes for the Blockchain Industry, one of which is the formation of the world’s first crypto bursa that is regulated by the government, the formation of this bursa is expected to provide certainty, clarity, and protection to investors, as well as prevent things such as money laundering and criminal acts or terrorism funding. Jerry emphasized, “when the bursa has been built, there will be kliring, there will be record-keeping, and so on it will be more visible to manage. We will make sure that it can be monitored and implemented properly.”

Dr. R. Edi Prio Pambudi, SE, MA as Expert Staff of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs shared his views on blockchain innovation, where industry players can take advantage of creative opportunities to innovate the Blockchain-based systems. Edi believes that if it can be realized, blockchain will no longer be known as a speculative instrument only, but a technology that can solve problems in the real sector, and on the other hand can still be an investment instrument. He briefly discussed the G20 plan for next year which “should be prepared as an arena to show that next year Indonesia is ready, we have a lot of talents, how do we invest to develop this, so this should be worked on” where many investors will attend, so the Blockchain Industry in Indonesia must leverage this opportunity to become something interesting.

Ministry of Communications and Informatics, represented by Dr. Ir. I Nyoman Adhiarna, M.Eng as Acting Official Director Digital Economy of Ministry of Communication & Information Technology also provided inputs for regulators to create regulations that are more flexible, or commonly called agile regulation or smart regulation. Nyoman said that “the big issue related to blockchain is that the application can be very diverse and very fast and we have to create regulations that can catch up with the acceleration of this application so we need to work together and look at best practices from other countries to find the best references”. Nyoman encouraged the Ministry of Law and Human Rights to think about how to find a break through for smart contract applications if later realized based on Presidential Regulation (PP) Number 5 of 2021 concerning the implementation of risk-based licensing in KBLI 62014 related to Blockchain technology security activities that are already prevailing.

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The President Director of PERURI, Dwina Septiani Widjaya, showed her astonishment to see crypto asset investors who had already beaten the number of capital market investors, calling it unprecedented. Dwina hopes that the Blockchain Industry does not always have to rely on regulators to supervise, the most important thing is the association itself, “if we only rely on regulators, they often approach pure compliance while from us business people, we also need growth. Since we didn’t get the target as we [expected] to the shareholders, this is how we have to grow.” said Dwina closing the Smart Regulation: Regulatory Framework for Blockchain-based Projects panel at the 2021 Indonesian Blockchain Conference.