Bitcoin Daily: France OKs First ICO; Alibaba Blockchain Gets 2 US Patents

The French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) announced that it approved its first initial coin offering (ICO) — “ICO visa” — to the cryptocurrency fundraising platform French ICO.

“The PACTE law has indeed introduced in France an optional visa regime for fundraising in crypto-assets. Only public offerings of so-called utility tokens, which are not considered as financial instruments, are eligible for this optional visa,” the AMF said in the statement.

The public offering conducted by French ICO will take place between March 1 and June 1, 2020, according to the company’s website.

ICO visas are intended to safeguard investors from unexpected risks. Applicants have to prove to the AMF that all of the important sales data and possible risks were communicated. AMF’s approval does not means that it backs the company.

Applicants must follow all AMF regulations, monitor and safeguard the assets raised and show they will obey anti-money laundering (AML) and terrorist financing laws.

“The AMF visa does not in any way constitute an assessment as to whether or not it is appropriate to participate in a token offer,” the regulator said. “It means that in the context of this public offering of tokens, the issuer has provided the minimum guarantees required by law and that the white paper is complete and understandable to investors.”

In other news, the Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba was granted two patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to make its blockchain faster and safer, Coindesk reported.

According to the patent filing, one patent “will determine the update verification value of the node by using just the newly added data, not all the data in the block.” The other patent will “set up a validity period for a transaction.”

The two new patents could protect Alibaba against issues faced by Google and Facebook before their IPOs.

Alibaba applied for the most blockchain patents last year with 90, followed by IBM and Bank of America.