A Horizontal Workgroup is Formed
With an ordinance of the Bulgarian Minister of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications, a workgroup was set up with the following main objectives:
• to analyze the legislation in the country in connection with the application of the blockchain technology;
• consider the possibility of developing and applying the technology in the texts of national strategy papers;
• to support the participation of the Republic of Bulgaria in the European Partnership for Blockchain with opinions, materials, proposals for implementation, etc.
On 21st of March 2019 BBA took part in the workgroup’s first meeting, together with representatives of various ministries and agencies, the financial regulator – the Financial Supervision Commission, the academic community and representatives from leading IT companies and companies from the branch.
Last April, the European Commission created the European Partnership for Blockchain. Its task is to create a unified European infrastructure for blockchain services that will provide public services in all EU countries. For this purpose, 3 use cases proposed by the participants in the Partnership as already successfully functioning at national level to be implemented at EU level were identified. The idea is, in the process of introducing these cases of use to be able to identify the necessary characteristics of the future infrastructure.
The three selected use cases were the creation of a framework for a single European digital identity for public services related to eIDAS (European Regulation on Electronic Identification and Certification Services); transfer of Notary documents; and issuing diplomas.
The European Union is promoting the development of blockchain technologies also by funding projects in this area through several of its instruments, with the trend of increasing funding each year. The first instrument is the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program. On 9th of July 2019 there will be a call for proposals for next-generation Blockchain with a deadline for submitting projects on November 13, 2019.
Currently, a Call for Proposals for Blockchain for Social Good is underway at the European Innovation Council with a prize of € 5 million and the deadline for submitting projects is the end of the year.