April newsletter of the EU Blockchain Observatory & Forum

Official Newsletter of the European Union Blockchain Observatory & Forum

We are pleased to present you with our monthly update on the activities of the European Union Blockchain Observatory & Forum.

#EUBlockchain publications

We have had a busy month of April.

First off, we are pleased to announce that we have published our latest thematic report. The topic this time is digital identity, for many one of the most important topics in and promising use cases for blockchain. While we discuss digital identity in general, our real focus is on decentralised and self-sovereign identity – a topic whose time may have come. As we put it in the introduction:

“There are few things more central to a functioning society and economy than identity. Without a way to identify each other and our possessions we would hardly be able to build large nations or create global markets. Unfortunately, there are persistent – and increasingly serious – problems with the way digital identity works. … Thanks to a combination of technological advances, including the increasing sophistication of smartphones, advances in cryptography and the advent of the blockchain, it is now possible to build new identity frameworks based on the concept of decentralised identities – potentially including an interesting subset of decentralised identity known as self-sovereign identity (SSI). Explaining what these concepts are, and how they might work in the European context, is the subject we address in this paper.”

You can read and download the full paper here.

During the month we were also able to publish the academic report on “Tokenization of physical assets and the impact of IoT and AI” prepared for us by Tim Weingärtner of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences & Arts. You will find that on our site as well.

Last but not least, we continued adding to our “noteworthy articles” page, including with this technical post on Building on Bulletproofs from the Kauri Ethereum knowledge website (more such articles available at kauri.io).

#EUBlockchain events

In April we also held our ninth workshop, which this time addressed the pressing issue of blockchain governance. For many, governance is one of if not the most important topics in blockchain. You can read more about what transpired during the workshop here.

During the month we also published the full minutes of the March Convergence workshop in our formal Workshop Report.

And as a reminder, the next scheduled workshops are as follows (click on the links for more information):

• Digital assets, 24 May
• Use cases in the healthcare sector, 27 June

#EUBlockchain Online Community

As usual, our online forum remains active. Here are some of the issues that caught the attention of our community during the month:

• Malta’s Financial Regulator Issues Guides on Crypto Assets, Scams
• Austria Considers Establishment of Fintech Regulatory Sandbox
• Banks Can’t Snub Crypto Startups Thanks to France’s New Blockchain Law
• Central Bank of Russia Reviews Potential Benefits and Drawbacks of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)
• European Blockchain Service Infrastructure workgroups started

If you want to monitor the conversation or have your say, you are invited to join our online community.

We look forward to seeing you there! Inputs from this community of 1,500+ members play a major role in shaping the workshops and publications of the EU Blockchain Observatory & Forum.

Thank you!

As always, we would like to thank everyone who has been active in contributing to the Observatory. None of this would be possible without the participation of all of you in our community.

With best regards,
The EU Blockchain Observatory & Forum