Why Blockchain?
- New paradigms and collaborative models in the digital economy (more trust)
- Transformative capacities (e.g. disintermediation, tokenisation)
- Potential alternative model to dominant platforms (decentralisation)
- Higher quality and efficiency (e.g. data integrity, traceability)
- Role for public bodies and the private sector
A Digital Single Market for Blockchain
Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) are considered breakthrough technologies for decades to come. They are cross-cutting technologies that can empower citizens, public services and businesses to control and share access to data in a secure, transparent, verifiable and disintermediated way. They can transform the internet and digital services globally. Blockchain and DLT are well suited for Europe complementing the EU’s decentralised and multilevel governance, with many interactions across borders between independent private and public organisations.
The European Union aims at establishing global leadership in blockchain and DLT by:
Shaping a European partnership to develop a joint EU Blockchain Infrastructure
Ministries’ political commitment at Digital Day 2018 resulted in the creation of the European Blockchain Partnership – which today unites virtually all EU Member States as well as Norway and Liechtenstein in building a European Blockchain Services Infrastructure, the most ambitious joint endeavour at continental level. The ambition is to create a «gold standard» for blockchain/DLT governance and infrastructure worldwide, in line with European values and laws.
Making our solutions part of a global approach
The European Blockchain Partnership Committee is providing an open, transparent and inclusive governance model; is supporting development and adoption of interoperability specifications; is maintaining a permanent dialogue with regulators to support convergence of regulatory approaches globally.
Our rationale for doing this is simple: European efforts to fully implement Blockchain and DLT will be ineffective if they are not compatible and interoperable with solutions developed elsewhere in the world.
To ensure interoperability, the EBPC is actively participating in the ISO standardisation process for DLT (ISO TC 307). An EU White Paper on Blockchain standardisation has been published by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN); ETSI, the EU Telecom Standards Institute, has created specific groups working on identity, security and trust for blockchain and DLT.
We invest in digital skills
Digital skills are the future. The EBPC will invest in our citizens to acquire the advanced digital skills they need for accessing and using the latest digital technologies.
The way forward
- European strategic leadership in MFF 2021-2027, while continue funding R&I through existing EU programmes
- Address regulatory aspects to exploit the single market
- Build European blockchain public services with practical cross-border use cases
- Promote public-private cooperation with INATBA
- Engage in international outreach
- Work on standardisation (ISO TC 307) and interoperability
- Prepare AI and blockchain investment fund
- Education and skills development