European Union Launches International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications

The European Union announced the launch of the International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA) on its official website on April 3.

According to a Cointelegraph representative who attended today’s ceremony at the European Commission in Brussels, the more than 100 members who have signed the charter include IBM, Accenture and Deutsche Telekom. Among the blockchain-related members number Iota, Ripple, ConsenSys, and the Sovrin Foundation.

Per the announcement, INATBA aims to bring together industry startups, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), regulators and standard setting bodies to bring blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) into the mainstream.

During the Brussels ceremony, European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel noted that the EU is committed to fostering the development of blockchain. She said:

“In today’s economy, there is less and less time to build trust in the way it happened in the past. To fight cancer, to balance renewable energy, to trace the authenticity of goods, actors must be able to trust one another without meeting face-to-face. And how can we achieve this? Of course, with the help of blockchain.”

The body’s post also notes that the new organization is willing to promote the use of decentralized technologies by establishing a dedicated regulatory framework. It states:

“INATBA aims to develop a framework that promotes public and private sector collaboration, regulatory convergence, legal predictability and ensures the system’s integrity and transparency.”

At today’s ceremony, it was noted that 48 additional organizations had applied for membership on the day of the launch.

As Cointelegraph reported in January, the European Banking Authority (EBA) has recommended further research into cryptocurrency and will develop work on the sector in 2019 in a document focusing on the “applicability and suitability of European Union law to crypto-assets.”

Also in January, a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) has warned that “the [cryptocurrency] bubble has already started to collapse.”

Additional reporting by Simon Chandler.