INSIGHTS: We attended the 4th ECN CrowdCamp

This week on Thursday (13 June 2019) we attended the 4th European Crowdfunding Network's (ECN - https://eurocrowd.org/) CrowdCamp in Berlin. The main topic of this conference was blockchain and alternative finance.

From the discussions among the European Crowdfunding Network members and EU representatives it was clear that everyone sees a huge potential in the blockchain technology and its future applications.

It is important to highlight that the EU legislators (e.g. the European Commission) and regulators and policy makers (e.g. the German regulator BaFin) support this technology.

European Commission stated that the blockchain technology is among the main EU innovation priorities. Blockchain is mentioned in several EU action plans and programs, namely:

• FinTech Action Plan https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/180308-action-plan-fintech_en
• Blockchain4EU https://blogs.ec.europa.eu/eupolicylab/portfolios/blockchain4eu/
• European Blockchain Partnership https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/european-countries-join-blockchain-partnership
• INATBA https://inatba.org/

The EU's goal now is to implement concrete measures to increase uptake of blockchain by SMEs, i.e. to inspire SMEs to use blockchain, encourage intermediaries to develop blockchain expertise and help draw lessons for policy makers by means of innovation (e.g. token economy), well-designed regulation (preferably via sandboxes), education and best practices.

First BaFin approved European STO was also discussed as an important milestone in the area of token economy https://hackernoon.com/the-first-sto-milestone-is-german-bitbond-issues-the-first-bafin-approved-security-token-bond-70925e61f2d.

Some very interesting use cases that are now being developed using blockchain technology were introduced:

• SPENN https://www.spenn.com/ - an advanced financial platform built into user friendly mobile banking app, an e-wallet for the unbanked
• FINEXITY https://finexity.com/ - Germany’s first blockchain-based residential real estate investment platform. Utilising blockchain, it tokenises selected properties and thereof not only reduces issuing costs to a minimum, but also enables retail investors an owner-like participation with regards to the net rental income, property value growth as well as mortgage repayments.
• BLINKING https://blinking.id/ - GDPR compliant blockchain-based digital ID solution that gives users complete control over their data.

We are looking forward to the next ECN events - our http://visions.network/ will be there to keep an eye on the EU blockchain, crowdfunding and other alternative finance developments.