On Sept. 30, the European Blockchain Sandbox Initiative (EBSI) said that 41 authorities and regulators from 22 countries in the European Union and European Economic Area have joined the initiative.
Participants include authorities in the following countries: France, Spain, The Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, Germany, Cyprus, Portugal, Bulgaria, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Lithuania and the Czech Republic.
Supporting use cases for distributed ledger technology
The European Commission launched the EBSI to support use cases involving distributed ledger technology (DLT). The project aims to provide a framework for blockchain projects, regulators and authorities to engage in dialogue and identify legal and regulatory obstacles to blockchain innovation.
The initiative aims to increase regulatory certainty for decentralized technology solutions like the blockchain. The European Commission wrote:
“The Sandbox will allow regulators and supervisors to enhance their knowledge of cutting-edge blockchain technologies. Legal advice will be provided and regulatory experience and guidance will be contributed in a safe and confidential environment.”
In addition, the EBSI will annually support 20 projects that build use cases based on blockchain technology. The use cases will be selected based on several criteria, including business maturity, legal relevance and contribution to EU policy priorities.
The projects will receive legal and regulatory advice provided by the law firm Bird & Bird and will have the chance to discuss regulatory questions with participating regulators.
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Firms selected to participate in the EBSI second cohort
On June 13, the EBSI announced the companies selected to join its second cohort. They included companies with use cases ranging from real-world asset (RWA) tokenization to projects aiming to provide blockchain-based digital passports.
Iota, a crypto ecosystem and an open-source distributed ledger, is one of the projects chosen for the second cohort.
Iota said that being selected for the EBSI was a milestone for its identity solution. The project said this opens the door to KYC discussions and privacy in Web3. “This is especially relevant now that many regulators are considering their approach to decentralized finance,” Iota said.
