Telangana has announced the first cohort of Web3 Regulatory Sandbox at the ETHforAll event organised by Devfolio in collaboration with Government of Telangana at T-Hub.
ETHForAll is an online hackathon focused on public goods and governance in collaboration with the Government of Telangana. It aims to unite a community of builders who have the vision to build for a more positive-sum future.
In today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape, regulatory frameworks are often slow to catch up with advancements in technology. This is where start-ups have the chance to shape Web 3.0 policies and regulation to help evolve it into a truly ethical, open, and interoperable system with high standards.
This sandbox will be a supportive and enabling environment for innovation especially in the emerging technologies like Web 3.0 and blockchain. The Regulatory Sandbox is a step towards creating such an environment. The sandbox will operate in a cohort format. There will be two cohorts in a year and each cohort will run for a period of 6 months. For the first cohort eight startups are selected after a screening 28 potential applicants by the Governing Council. The startups that will be part of the first cohort are Dygnify, Renai, EquiDEI, Finclus, Zoth, The-Ally, Rariko, and SpotSpreads. The first meeting of the Governing Council and Advisory Group was held to outline the operationalization of the sandbox.
At the end of each cohort, the companies with the most viable solutions will be considered by the government for expanding in the real world. The observations on regulatory policies will be passed on to the regulatory bodies and wherever necessary, state-level policies will be drafted to implement the findings of the sandbox.
Also, a series of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were signed between Government of Telangana, and several key partners in the WEB3 ecosystem. The seven partners that signed MoUs with the Government include Polygon, Devfolio, Sino Global, Blockchain Lawyer, Indian Blockchain Forum, Hyderabad DAO, and Quillhash. These MoUs are a significant step forward in the growth and development of the WEB3 ecosystem in the state of Telangana and will provide new opportunities for collaboration and innovation.
Sri. K.T Rama Rao, Hon’ble Minister for IT, MA&UD, and Industries said, “Telangana has established a reputation as a pioneer in the adoption of emerging technologies. We are now also focusing on Web3 as these technologies have rapidly scaled up over the last few years. We believe that the Telangana Web3.0 Sandbox will be helpful in empowering startups to succeed by providing them with regulatory support and access to the resources they need to grow.”
Sri. Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary ITE&C and Industries, said, “We want to make Hyderabad a centre for Web 3.0 activities in the country. Given the increased difficulties for Web3 startups in India’s regulatory landscape, we have made this sandbox to enable growth in the ecosystem. With increased events around Web3 and a regulatory sandbox in place, Hyderabad is rightly placed to bring together the Web3 ecosystem with events like Asia’s biggest event ETHIndia and Devcon.”
