The European Commission has come out in support of blockchain technology saying that Europe must embrace the technology to remain competitive in the global landscape.

“The blockchain technology holds strong promise for financial markets. To remain competitive, Europe must embrace this innovation", said Latvian Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice President of the European Commission. The enthusiasm which the executive body for EU has for blockchain isn't applicable for cryptocurrencies or tokens with Dombrovskis saying that they are speculative and do not have a guaranteed value.

While Dombrovskis agrees that any investment instrument would come with its own set of risks, but he is of the opinion that warnings about risk “must be clear, frequent, and across all jurisdictions", which are currently absent in the ICO landscape.

Where there are opportunities in the digital currency landscape there are substantial risks involved along with questions of transparency and that's where ICOs have been lagging. Transparency issues have been a big one and authorities have been concerned over lack of full transparency in business plans prospectuses or whitepapers.

Authorities have time and again called upon ICO providers to show some key figures in their business plans and whitepapers including profits, revenue, and so on, for investors to be able to make an informed decision on the risk level they wish to take.

The European Commission believes that transparency is a huge question but it can easily be addressed by a non-governing trade body that sets some guidelines with companies that meet them benefiting from a higher level of respectability.

The European Commission, however, doesn’t really go into much detail regarding what plan of action derives from their conclusion.