News

Upcoming EUBOF reports

EUBOF will publish the following reports in the next few days:

A thematic report examining the challenges and opportunities of the metaverse
A thematic report on transparent and sustainable supply chains.
A trends report presenting the latest news and updates trending in markets, technologies, and policies.
A thematic report examining the energy consumption of proof of work (PoW). This report will be a deep dive into bitcoin mining and its corresponding energy consumption in EU Member States. It will provide information on BTC mining pools, pool operators, and major mining facilities and will also examine proof of stake and energy consumption.
A thematic report on blockchain in the automotive industry, focused on use cases and opportunities, as well as future applications and challenges.
A thematic report on smart contracts. This report will define what smart contracts are, how they work, where they are applied and what the main benefits and challenges of using them are. The report examines use cases in various sectors and explores the future of smart contracts in the metaverse and beyond.

Upcoming Conferences/ Events

Save the Date: EUBOF Event, 20 October 2022, Nicosia - Cyprus

The EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum is pleased to announce its second hybrid event! The event titled ‘EU blockchain developments: shaping the future’ will be held on 20 October in Nicosia and will feature speakers across a variety of panels and keynotes on blockchain trends and innovation in Europe and beyond.

The event is set to attract attendees from the European Commission, startups, NGOs, academia, and governments and will cover a variety of topics such as the EU blockchain ecosystem landscape, regulation, metaverse, the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), and sustainability powered by blockchain.

Highlights/Objectives:

An engaging event with opportunities to network and exchange ideas with blockchain experts from around the world.
A chance to talk directly with regulators and policy makers.
Discover the latest blockchain trends.
Attendees from the European Commission, startups, NGOs, academia, and governments.
Panel discussions on hot topics such as the metaverse, converging technologies and sustainability, and blockchain.
A specialised session on the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI)

The confirmed speaker line-up for the event so far includes:

Eva Kaili, MEP, VP of European Parliament
Helen Koepman, DG CNECT
Antonis Polemitis, CEO, University of Nicosia
Prof. George Giaglis, executive director of the University of Nicosia
Nena Dokuzov, European Blockchain Partnership
Dr Joshua Ellul, professor at the University of Malta
Dr Ioannis Revolidis, University of Malta
Dr Ingrid Vasiliou Feltes, CEO SoftHread, EUBOF expert panel

The event will be held at the UNESCO Amphitheatre of the University of Nicosia (46 Makedonitissis Avenue, Engomi, Nicosia 2417, Cyprus. (Directions here). To proceed with registration, Click Here! The conference will be organised in hybrid mode, which will allow for both the physical and online participation of attendees and speakers.

Democracy4All will take place on 10 and 11 November, in La Llotja de Mar, Barcelona, and online.

The international event Democracy4All (D4A), which has been held annually since 2019, returns to Barcelona for its fourth edition, in hybrid format. Following the previous edition's success using this model, the event will once again offer both an online and on-site experience. D4A is organised by the CBCat (Blockchain Centre of Catalonia), which is part of Barcelona's Chamber of Commerce, and has the support of the Catalan Government.

Democracy4All's orientation makes it a unique event because it focuses on the use of blockchain as an instrument of democratic improvement in terms of social, corporate and individual governance. It offers Catalonia the opportunity to host the most important international conclave for political actors and institutions everywhere, and it contributes to speeding up the dialogue between government bodies and new technologies.

Democracy4All brings together talent, experts, and policymakers to share and discuss the latest advances in technology and regulation. The keystone of the event is the 12 Principles of Good Democratic Governance set by the Council of Europe. These encapsulate fundamental values defining a common vision of democratic governance in Europe. Last year's event was attended by top-level dignitaries from the fields of technology and politics, such as John McAffee, founder of McAffee, John Denton, secretary general of the ICC, Helen Köpman, acting head of unit, Digital Innovation and Blockchain at the European Commission, Toomas Hendrik, former president of Estonia and Jordi Puigneró, vice president of the Catalan Government. The list of speakers at this year's D4A will be announced shortly by the organisation.

Upcoming workshops/ webinars

Blockchain for Cross-Border Payments: Connecting the Fragmented World – 5 October

Blockchain is said to be a game-changer for cross-border payments, making the entire process simpler, reducing costs and the time required for transactions. This event will engage the audience on the essentials of utilising blockchain for cross-border payments, highlighting some of the latest use cases, and discussing the opportunities and challenges.

Please register for the event here.

Climate Action & Sustainability: Workshop on Blockchain Use Cases – 4 October 2022

In collaboration with the International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA), EUBOF is co-organising a virtual workshop on climate action and sustainability, taking a deep dive into use cases.

In combination with other technologies, blockchain/DLT can be a powerful tool to support several UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With the help of ecosystem players, this workshop will examine this potential. The workshop will use poll questions and discussion in order to identify:

a) use cases that are good to have but do not provide much improvement;

b) when blockchain significantly improves the use case, especially in terms of cost and effectivity, but the use case is still doable without blockchain/DLT;

c) use cases where you cannot achieve the same result without blockchain/DLT.

Past Events

World FutureVerse Conference 2022

The World FutureVerse Conference was hosted by Technology Park Ljubljana, bringing together leaders and creative visionaries from different industries. The Conference gathered great thinkers from the tech industry and talented content creators from all fields.

During the conference, examples of best practices in the use of future technologies in business and industry were presented in the Bled Festival Hall.

Read more here: https://wfvconf.com/

Workshop on ‘Using Blockchain to Mitigate Financial Crime’

This event was organised by INATBA on 18 August. It aimed to discuss how blockchain can turn the tide on financial crime. It also walked through available tools and technologies that can actually help mitigate financial crimes.

Blockchain Start-Ups, Innovation Hubs and SMMEs in European Countries

On 28 July, a workshop on blockchain start-ups, innovation hubs and SMMEs in European countries was organised by the Governmental Advisory Body of INATBA. The focus was on blockchain policies & innovation ecosystems and aimed to identify (with a focus on Africa) what policymakers need to develop national blockchain policies that will provide an environment that enables the growth of local innovation ecosystems, as well as an appropriate regulatory framework that ensures citizens enjoy data protection and privacy.

Blockchain: a key enabler to innovation in Europe and the world

Our first hybrid event since 2020, 'Blockchain: a key enabler to innovation in Europe and the world' took place in Brussels, on 8 July 2022

Our team presented the latest updates on the EU blockchain landscape, the latest trends like the metaverse, Web3.0 and NFTs, and the energy efficiency of blockchain applications, as well as the opportunity to directly liaise with policymakers, regulators, start-up entrepreneurs, NGOs, academics, and researchers in the blockchain domain.

A big thank you to all our fantastic speakers, panellists and moderators: Eva A. Kaili, Pierre Marro, Lambis Dionysopoulos, Soulla Louca, Nena Dokuzov, Marc Taverner, Jusha Ellul, Christian Hauschildt, Daniel Bachenheimer, Kai Wagner, Paola Heudebert, Maya Madrid, Nikolaos Kostopoulos, Jeff Bandman, Dr Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes, Ioannis Revolidis, Leonardo Calini, Alex de Vries, Jens Strüker and Ioannis Vlachos!

A big thank you to our wonderful team for making this happen: Marianna Charalambous, Aliki Ntouzgou, Vasileios Koukis, Nasos Grigoratos, Nicolaos Coulouris, Zoran Cuk and Natalia Bimpiza.

Many thanks to DG CNECT for hosting the event and a special thanks to Marie Markosian and Barbora Greplova for their tireless support!

We are pleased to inform you that the link to the streamed session is now available, in case you missed it!

Workshop on Blockchain Applications in the Energy Sector

The workshop took place on 29 June. It discussed blockchain applications in the energy sector. Ioannis Vlachos presented the latest report published by the observatory, which not only focuses on the energy sector but also explores the EU action plan for digitalising energy.

The following topics were addressed by the panel of invited experts:

Standardisation Activities for DLT in the Energy Sector.
From Theory to Practice: Tales from the industry.
The Status of R&D Innovation in Europe.

The recording of the session is available here and the summary report will be published soon.

Workshop on the Metaverse in Association with INATBA

On 24 May, a workshop entitled 'Metaverse – Why all the Hype?' was held virtually to discuss the metaverse and the opportunities and threats arising within this new digital space, from academic and industry perspectives.

The event included presentations from academia and industry as well as an expert panel.

The report on the event is available here!

Previous EUBOF Publications

The reports below were published recently:

Report on the EU Blockchain Ecosystem Development, version 2022. The EU Blockchain Observatory & Forum has published the most recent report capturing the current state of technological, market and regulatory developments in each of the 27 EU Member States, plus Switzerland and the United Kingdom (UK). The report provides country-level 'factsheets' summarising the state of affairs in each country.

Report on Decentralised Finance (DeFI): the aim of this report is to define and present the main principles of DeFi. It also gives details about the size of the DeFi market and the concepts of decentralised lending and borrowing, as well as decentralised exchanges and other notable DeFi concepts.

Report on Blockchain Applications in the Energy Sector: the report provides an overview of blockchain technology in the energy sector. On the basis of interviews with experts, it also examines standardisation activities, use cases in the sector, the status of R&D and innovation, and regulatory challenges and barriers, as well as insights directly from the industry. It also provides policy and regulatory recommendations for the future development of blockchain applications in the energy sector.

June Trends Report: the report includes latest trends and developments in blockchain, examining markets, technological developments, and updates on the global legal and regulatory framework.

Publications

The European Blockchain Skills Strategy builds on over one year of extensive research carried out by the CHAISE partnership—analysing the blockchain labour market and the supply and demand for blockchain skills—as well as on numerous consultations with key European stakeholders.

Led by CHAISE partner INATBA, the strategy sums up the main results of the analysis and formulates a strategy and action plan to tackle the blockchain skills shortage in Europe so as to keep Europe at the forefront of blockchain innovation.

You can read the strategy here!

Are you interested in finding out more about blockchain market characteristics? Read the CHAISE project report titled Study on blockchain labour market characteristics and check out the following:

Map of Blockchain Education and Training Initiatives

We are proud to present our new website feature, a map of existing blockchain training and educational initiatives in Europe and the rest of the world!

We invite all organisations offering such training or educational programmes to provide information about their initiatives by completing a simple online form. All entries will be reviewed by our team in terms of relevance and completeness of information and will then be made available on the map.

Users will be able to find training and education opportunities, based on specific criteria, including country, language, type of courses offered, type of certification, etc.

For more information visit our website.

Initiatives and Projects in a Map

Are you aware of any blockchain initiatives or projects in your country? Are you organising an initiative or project related to blockchain?

If so, we want to know about it! To put your project on the map, simply fill in this form. Initiatives include start-ups, not-for-profit organisations, academic research, open-source projects, consortium, government or corporate initiatives, foundations and more.