Gibraltar's Minister for Commerce, The Hon Albert Isola MP, was invited to participate in a panel discussion on Wednesday, 5th December, at the Latin American Bitcoin and Blockchain Conference (LABITCONF) which took place in Centro Cultural CorpArtes, Santiago, Chile.

The 3 day conference explored all aspects of the DLT community and specifically strategies that countries can adopt to attract blockchain companies and regulate the industry. Gibraltar's Minister for Commerce, The Hon Albert Isola MP, said, "LABITCONF has built strong momentum as a platform for high level blockchain debate since its inception in 2013 and is the major DLT Blockchain conference in Latin America. In advance of the conference Albert Isola remarked that "I look forward to taking part in a dynamic panel discussion on the strategies countries can adopt to not only attract blockchain companies, but bring sustainable regulation to their jurisdictions."

LABITCONF, held annually since 2013, brings together some of the world's brightest minds and top speakers within the space, facilitating collaboration and discussion between a wide variety of leading industry players from more than 20 countries, exploring the full potential of blockchain technology. Minister Isola was joined on the panel by Joey García, Fintech/Blockchain Financial Services Partner at ISOLAS LLP; Jacob Farber, Partner at Ouroboros LLP Blockchain Law & Strategic Consulting; Pablo Coirolo, Founder of CryptoBay Montevideo; and Juan Llanos, Founder at Multiple Startups and Blockchain Compliance Advisor.

During the conference, Minister Isola also met with a number of representatives of Gibraltar firms based in South America. For HM Government of Gibraltar, this represents the first time officials have visited South America exclusively for blockchain focused business. Already this year, Minister Isola has appeared at a number of high profile international conferences and events geared towards blockchain exploration including November's DC Fintech Week in Washington, as well as Gibraltar Day in Tel Aviv in October, underlining Gibraltar's credentials as a leading blockchain jurisdiction with global reach.

"As the wider blockchain ecosystem continues to evolve at a fast pace, the importance of regulation has never been more pronounced. Following a very exciting year, in which Gibraltar successfully introduced a purpose-built legislative Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) framework and subsequently granted DLT licences to a number of firms, I look forward to outlining my perspective on how to best shape a sustainable regulatory framework alongside my esteemed panelists," concluded Minister Isola.

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