At yesterday's Blockchain Workshop conference held at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, a panel of primarily US based lawyers found out why Australian regulators have taken leadership roles on many global organisations.After 15 minutes of introductory remarks and discussion of legal principles around custody and control of blockchain assets, the group (most of whom had cut their teeth on bitcoin battle) were asked whether regulatory bodies, "and the staff that they have" were adequately equipped to analyse bitcoin and blockchain technology.Kathleen Moriarty, from law firm Kaye Scholer, who is credited with doing the legal work to set up the world's first bitcoin-based ETF, answered with a cautious "it just depends - some of the regulators' staff are up to speed and some are not…. and if they're not you have to go through an education process before you can talk about some of the issues."Dana Syracuse, managing director at K2 Intelligence added: "As it stands now, there are few regulators who have that expertise, and even fewer with the willingness to go out on a limb and make that decision."As bitcoin grows and as blockchain grows, regulators are going to have to look for staff that have this ability," she said.Anti-money laundering consultant Juan Llanos went further, describing regulators as "rather unsophisticated and basically just there to enforce the threat of regulation." However, he was more worried about the capability further up the food chain."Our concern should be whether policy makers are equipped to design the right framework," he said. "That's why we need forward-thinking, enlightened legislators."Of course, none of them noticed that sitting in the front row was Greg Medcraft, chair of ASIC, who then leapt to his feet microphone in hand, to introduce himself. Medcraft is also the chair of the international Organisation of Securities Commissions, which has a role in 120 countries around the world, and a member of the Financial Stability Board - key roles that he was keen to point out.Medcraft's dramatic timing was rewarded with the type of applause and laughter usually accorded to a seasoned stand-up act - and that was before he delivered his main message for the visiting experts."Domestically, in fintech and blockchain in particular, we've embraced it. [ASIC] has established an innovation hub and we want to modify the law, to the extent that we can, to facilitate digital innovation," Medcraft said. "We're very keen, because we see the opportunity for competition ultimately benefitting consumers."On a global basis, at IOSCO we have established a blockchain taskforce. What we're trying to do is get countries to think about how to enable [blockchain technology]. At the next IOSCO board meeting in February, along with the chair of the SEC, we're focussing a whole day on blockchain and what it potentially means for markets, for clearing, for settlements."Medcraft ended his spiel with: "Let's harness the opportunity and mitigate the risk - and that may mean we either recruit the skills, or second the skills, or [tap] our innovation hub."Later in the panel discussion,