FYFY Initial Coin Offering: Choice Of Country And Leading The Way Towards an Innovation-Friendly Legal Framework

‘From the beginning, when an innovation about transforming the whole payment industry was growing in the mind of Fyfy’s CEO, Niklas, leading into the formation of Fyfy team, it has been our ambition to launch FYFY Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in Finland. We aim to make a change in the payment industry and bring good for both businesses and consumers. It has been close to our heart that with Fyfy we can also contribute good for the Finnish society and make general good for the global economy. For this reason, our main focus has been on finding a way how to start our business from Finland and continue to spread our vision to where most of the world’s population uses blockchain technology in their everyday payment behavior. However, things don’t always go as you want, and now we will tell you what really happened with our choice of country.’

Unclear legislation is hindering the development of crypto innovations

The purpose of crypto regulations is to bring legal certainty, safety, and clarity into the surrounding legal environment. This industry needs clear rules and legal protection. Misinterpretations and a lack of expertise create huge barriers, eventually preventing innovations like Fyfy. These new businesses can significantly impact on increasing employment and tax reserves in their place of permanent establishment.

These vast differences, lack of understanding, and precedents lead to legal uncertainty in the whole crypto industry. Financial authorities are slowing down the development of new kinds of technological innovations and businesses entering the market.

Blockchain technology removes barriers and increases trust between different parties. This technology positively impacts on businesses, and in the payment industry, everything can be automated – from salary to tax payments – with low costs. There are lots of benefits, and with this technology, people can have power over their assets. However, this technology is new, and it’s also taking revenue from traditional banks, so it is not a surprise that it is seen as a threat.

There are huge varieties in different countries in how crypto regulations are interpreted and in the general atmosphere among local authorities towards the crypto industry. Though Finland was for long our first choice for our ICO, it became pretty clear in the beginning that we needed to make a comparison between other European countries.

Building sustainable business requires favorable soil

Launching business-critical products and services in the markets are prevented with regulations and complicated licensing processes, where legislation consists of material deficiencies and interpretive flaws in how company-issued cryptocurrencies are valued or defined. Investing in FYFY token, you become part of an entire payment ecosystem supporting the development of technology and applications enabling fast and cheap cross-border transactions.

Planning Pre-ICO and ICO is challenging, and we cannot leave anything to chance. All legal and practical requirements need to be met so that Fyfy can launch token sales and that investors can invest safely.

We compared different European countries such as the Baltics, Poland, other Nordic countries, Luxemburg, Malta, and Switzerland. In the final phase, Finland, Estonia, and Switzerland were left. There is a huge variation of how crypto businesses are treated in these countries, whereas Estonia and Switzerland started to look most likely due to their most crypto-friendly atmosphere.

Estonia is Finland’s neighbor, yet everything is so different. Estonia was among the first countries to offer cryptocurrency business licenses, and it has quickly become the pioneer in the crypto industry. It became a strong option due to Estonia’s simplified processes and clarified licensing environment where one license covers both exchange and wallet services. Switzerland is another option because it is widely known as business-friendly and development-oriented, whereas cryptos make no exception.

The Finnish tax authority and Financial Authority (FIVA) cannot currently support new companies entering the crypto business. It seems that at the moment there are no required resources nor competence to understand and support crypto businesses. ICOs are commonly confused with other investment services leading to 24 months of ongoing processes. Despite our efforts, we were not able to get any clarifications on the current legislative situation in Finland and whether we would have any support for our business.

The final signal for our decision was when FIVA announced having their seasonal vacations, and nothing would have progressed during the summer. It was a clear signal that we needed to study alternative options since cryptocurrency businesses require the ongoing support of financial authorities.

Showing an example can lead to progress

Since day one, our vision has been that the whole world will use blockchain technology in their everyday payment behavior. To succeed with this, we need partners that foster blockchain development towards mainstream daily life and an atmosphere where all authorities support our journey and growth.

We have been very open about our plans and research with our Finnish Telegram community. Finland’s crypto atmosphere is widely known among crypto investors. As everyone is eagerly waiting for us to succeed in FYFY ICO, we’re humbled by the support we have been given by our community members to find the best solution.

By being open and bringing these issues to the public, we want to encourage legislators and financial authorities to work together for the common good and get more clarity into the current juridical situation. When the companies are transferring their businesses elsewhere, their home country is losing employment and tax benefits.

Though we are launching FYFY Pre-ICO and ICO either in Estonia or Switzerland, it does not mean that we are gone for good. The majority of our current team members and founders are Finnish and want to pay their taxes in Finland.

However, for our ecosystem to succeed and to launch ICO, we need to start elsewhere. Finland is in our hearts, and we will come back whenever the regulatory atmosphere is ready – not to hinder but – to support our journey.

Jenna / Fyfy.io

Website: fyfy.io
Twitter: twitter.com/fyfyio
Instagram: instagram.com/fyfy.official/
Facebook: facebook.com/fyfy.io
Telegram (in Finnish at the moment): t.me/fyfyio