[To Eurosmart members only]

European Commission signed a contract with 7 companies for blockchain innovations

The European Commission is looking for innovative solutions for the European Blockchain Services Infrastructures (see a previous briefing here). This is why the Commission launched, last November, a call for tender for pre-commercial solutions. It has ultimately awarded the contract to 7 companies:

-IOTA Stiftung

-IOV42 Ltd

-Stichting Dyne.org, Infocert Spa, Riddle and Co Gmbh

-Orange Business Belgium SA

-Chromaway AB

-Billon Spolka Z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnoscia

-Westpole Belgium, Net Service Spa, Flosslab s.r.l

The European Blockchain Services Infrastructures is focused on developing use cases that can be implemented relatively easily by using blockchain technology. However, the Commission considers that there are gaps in existing blockchain solutions to deliver more demanding cross-border blockchain services, especially regarding security, interoperability, robustness, sustainability and compliance with EU laws.

The seven selected companies will therefore develop and test a novel distributed ledger or blockchain solution, building on GDPR, eIDAS and NIS.

The solutions will focus on the identification and characterisation of objects, their traceability, management and exploitation of data, automation of tasks (e.g. smart contracts), exchanges with external solutions through relevant interfaces, as well as enabling reward and incentive models to be exploited through tokenised approaches. One the targeted use cases is the digital product passport. The European Commission also targets the tracking of digital records and the rights associated to them or other IoT use cases.

The development of the solutions should take place within the next three years. Only three companies will remain in the last phase of the procurement.

Next steps:

Phase 1: (solution design): Launched on 19 July 2021 for a duration of 3 months

Phase 2A: (prototype development and lab testing): Will start 1 to 2 months after phase 1 for a duration of 6 months

Phase 2B: (further solution development/finalisation and field testing): Will start in continuity of the phase 2A for a duration of 12 month

If you have any questions on this issue, please do not hesitate to contact Camille Dornier - Policy Manager: camille.dornier@eurosmart.com