The Research Center Has Joined the INATBA’s Industrial Blockchain Task Force for the European Commission’s Needs
On November 17, 2023, our Research Center of Blockchain Solutions, the only one from Ukraine, joined the Industrial Blockchain Task Force for the European Commission’s needs, in particular to create the near-term regulatory landscape for this purpose. This Task Force was urgently created in October – November 2023 by the INATBA (International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications), one of the EU’s most prestigious specialized expert research centers dealing with blockchain. The INATBA unites over 200 leading European blockchain experts: scientists, venture capitalists and innovators, lobbyists, former legislators, etc.
The newly created Industrial Blockchain Task Force aims to assess the status of European private and public tech infrastructure projects that involve blockchain technology and to release a final report in winter 2024 with an overview of these developments.
This mapping initiative is highly needed for the current needs of the European Commission to clarify its official position regarding the support of European blockchain innovations and cloud infrastructure, which will mostly be used by European industrial manufacturers. The initiative is also necessary to best combine comprehensive blockchain solutions and AI to ensure resilient EU industrial products and processes while increasing trust in reporting and regulatory compliance.
What exactly does it mean? For the first time, there will be a systematic assessment of existing blockchain solutions using corporate and consortial collaborations as well as future standardization efforts in major EU sectors: circular economy, energy and automotive industries. It is known that at least all the largest European engineering and energy corporations expect these results.
Why is this really important for the EU and Ukraine? The new European MiCA Regulation establishes that in 2024, all utility tokens must comply with MiCA regulatory requirements, which actually concerns a huge number of utility tokens and methods of their applied use. The Industrial Blockchain Task Force will be the EU’s first attempt to summarize the latest capabilities of blockchain technology and its benefits for achieving goals of the EU policy and initiatives, such as Digital Product Passports, Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and incoming reporting in accordance with ESG (Environmental — Social — Governance) requirements. For Ukraine and our Ukrainian experts, this means that we will be even more integrated into the European expert and industrial space, especially based on the fact that Ukraine is already preparing to adopt a new Draft Law “On Virtual Assets” (registered in November 2023), which is mainly focused on the legal circulation of utility tokens.
As a member of the Industrial Blockchain Task Force, the Research Center of Blockchain Solutions has already begun to formulate its proposals for participation in the consortium project with a detailed overview of one or more selected specific topics in which the Center has considerable expertise. Meanwhile, the main and intensive expert work is planned for December 2023.
Reference: INATBA as an association facilitates positive change in blockchain-based ecosystems and strives to support and promote global blockchain adoption in different areas, such as law, finance and education. This association is part of all significant European industry consortia and is actively involved in the discussion of draft EU regulations and directives concerning virtual assets and decentralized finance (DeFi).