This will be interesting.

The European Parliament ordered a study (and annex) on "The Collaborative Economy", which was published in Dec-2015.

The study covers the broader "Sharing Economy", with a dedicated insight and recommendations on cryptocurrencies on p.12ff and p.62ff: EU Parliament Collaborative Economy.

In a nutshell: The idea is to regulate the technology in order to benefit from it's potential. On consumer, business, society and government level.

Five recommendations are made to the European policymakers:

1. Define a recognition process.

2. Define and index Virtual Currency stakeholders

3. Take a view on technology

4. Consider regulatory frameworks

5. Protect government revenues

The details behind those recommendations can be found on p.62ff of the study mentioned above.

Further, there is an upcoming event, which should be interesting for anybody involved in Bitcoin, Blockchain or Cryptocurrencies (And that's a lot these days!):

Public Hearing on Virtual Currencies at the EU Parliament:

25.01.2016,

1500-1630.

The hearing will be streamed live on http://europarltv.europa.eu

The program of the public hearing lists, in addition to the policymakers, Wiebe Ruttenberg (European Central Bank) and Olivier Salles (European Commission), and further knowledgeable experts from academia and relevant market sectors:

Primavera de Filippi, who was one of the first in academia understanding the full potential of blockchain and cryptocurrency during her work at the Harvard Berkman Center. She's from CNRS, University of Paris II, Harvard Berkman Center and COALA.global (Coalition of Automated Legal Applications).

COALA.global just recently held a very interesting Blockchain Workshop in Sidney, discussing "Smart Contracts" and beyond with experts like Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum), Tim Swanson (R3CEV), Joi Ito (MIT Media Lab), Lawrence Lessing (Harward Law), Henning Dietrich (IBM) and Don Tapscott and Vlad Zamfir (Ethereum), just to name at least those I know.

After "Blockchain" gained incredible momentum in 2015 as buzzword, It is time to understand in 2016 the role, framework and design of the "Smart Contracts."

Here, I love the catchphrase I picked up at the MIT IAP Blockchain PrototypeJam I am lucky to take part. It comes from Dazza Greenwood, MIT, who refers to Lawrence Lessing:

"The Law is the Code, and the Code is the Law".

Then you have at the public hearing Sian Jones from the European Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology Forum (EDCAB), who made excellent contributions at the workshop on Blockchain with the European Commission in Brussels, which I attended last summer. Very knowledgeable on regulation and legal frameworks of the nascent Cryptoeconomy.

Also participating is Jeremy Miller from Magister Advisors, who just published an excellent survey "Blockchain and Bitcoin in 2016 - A Survey on Global Leaders".

Another participating expert is Thaer Sabri from the Electronic Money Association representing many household names from the electronic payment industry, ranging from AmEx, Boku, ClickandBuy, Google, Paypal, Skrill, Stripe, TransferWise, Wirecard and Worldpay to Yandex and many more.

It looks like this public hearing will be interesting.