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<p><img src="https://btcoins.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/eu_4.jpg?w=620&h=264&crop=1" width="620" height="264"/></p>
<p><strong>Is the EU open for cryptos and blockchains?</strong> <strong>Malta's Prime Minister advises to put more emphasis on cryptanions, while a report for the European Parliament highlights the potential of the blockchain to improve many areas of the economy and the government.</strong></p>
<p> So far, the EU has been showing up in the Krypto-News mainly for the fact that it <a href="https://bitcoinblog.de/2017/01/10/europaeischer-rat-nickt-vorschlag-der-kommission-zur-regulierung-von-bitcoins-ab/">regulates bitcoin </a>and thus, as a matter of course, sees as a problem. However, there are indications that some parts of the EU are beginning to turn to cryptosciences and blockchain in an impartial way and to apply an innovation-friendly approach.</p>
<p>The most impressive part is a <a href="http://www.livenewsmalta.com/index.php/2017/02/23/keynote-speech-by-pm-joseph-muscat-at-ceps-ideas-lab-reconstructing-the-union/">speech by Joseph Muscat</a> . Muscat is the Prime Minister of Malta and, as such, is a member of the <a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_der_Europ%C3%A4ischen_Union">Council of the European Union</a> in the first half of 2017. In his speech, Muscat made a strong contribution to monetary innovation:</p>
<blockquote><em>The euro is a political project that has survived because of its natural crises, which would not have met an incomplete fiscal and monetary union.</em> <em>Now it's time to double the Einsattz with another, unthinkable project.</em></blockquote>
<p>And this unthinkable project, to which Muscat wants to put, is - you suspect it:</p>
<blockquote><em>The rise of cryptic stimuli can be slowed but not stopped.</em> <em>Some financial institutions currently accept the fact that the system behind these transactions is much more efficient and transparent than the classic ones.</em></blockquote>
<p>Instead of fighting cryptic measures to defend the established institutions, Muscat recommends openly the opportunities:</p>
<blockquote><em>My point is that European regulators, instead of fighting, should be innovative and create mechanisms that can be used to regulate cryptoscrips, in a way that their potential is realized and protect consumers to make Europe the natural home Of innovators.</em></blockquote>
<p>Muscats comment is interesting. It shows that in the EU <a href="https://bitcoinblog.de/2017/02/21/die-eu-schuetzt-die-buerger-und-hilft-ihnen-die-kontrolle-zurueck-zu-gewinnen/">the most varied views</a> on cryptic habits and blockchains are circulating. The EU is not a Union but a Union of independent and different states.</p>
<h2>How Blockchain technology can change the lives of everyone in the EU</h2>
<p>An interesting addition to Muscat's call for innovation is a report prepared by the European Parliament. Its title is " <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2017/581948/EPRS_IDA(2017)581948_EN.pdf">How Blockchain Technology Can Change Our Life</a> ." In this <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2017/581948/EPRS_IDA(2017)581948_EN.pdf">relatively</a> short but very dense summary, the authors inform the parliamentarians of various areas where the blockchain can be disruptive.</p>
<p>In principle, this report is also very open to the potential of blockchain. The authors see above all the chance that the citizens of the EU emancipate themselves and gain autonomy over the ruling powers.</p>
<blockquote><em>Blockchains evade the central elite's control of daily interactions with technology and return them to the users.</em> <em>They make systems more transparent and, perhaps, more democratic.</em></blockquote>
<p>The authors of the report identify eight areas from which they assume that blockchain technology has the potential to shake and renew existing systems: currencies, digital content rights management, patents, electronic voting systems, smart contracts, supply chains Public Administration and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO).</p>
<p>In all these areas, the report outlines the disruptive potential. Cryptography to begin with could "initiate a process of decentralization that will undo the institutions that traditionally have ruled the finances, including governments and banks." But this is only the beginning, according to the authors.</p>
<h2>Huge potential but no neutral technology</h2>
<p>It is the technology behind Bitcoin, the blockchain, which according to the report can change large parts of society.</p>
<p>It could allow consumers to buy or sell digital copies as second hand goods. "It could replace the trust in central authorities to manage an election by" an open record of the citizens' choice ". In addition, Blockchain can provide the infrastructure for supply chains, "through which low cost items are registered, certified and tracked, while often being delivered over long distances. Finally, the blockchain could revamp the public administration through "tighter internal processes, reduced transaction costs, and increased trust between organizations and government silos that interact and share data."</p>
<p>The blockchain, as the report clearly shows, can help to improve numerous economic and governmental issues. But that does not mean that the blockchain is not a challenge for the EU. On the contrary. The authors of the report leave no doubt that blockchain is "not a neutral technology": "In its pure form it causes a redistribution of power from central actors to a wide community of peers." Even moderate implementations of Blockchai technology " Redistribution and transparency. "</p>
<p>This non-neutrality is one of the reasons why the report first recognizes the chances of Blockchain, but then translates the technology into problems in order to outline the possible political strategies. Digital currencies are used by criminals, the great transparency of the blockchain could be a problem for e-voting or supply chains, and the invariability of a blockchain could become problematic for public administration since a blockchain itself does not verify whether data is accurate. Smartcontracts could, in the end, be at the heart of national laws.</p>
<p>The potential comes with challenges.</p>
<h2>"The blockchain will not make people better."</h2>
<p>After the report has sketched both opportunities and risks, it is only logical that the possible political channels of action that he describes are ambivalent.</p>
<p>On the one hand, as Muscat suggests, he is actively encouraging "to actively encourage the development and development of blockchain in the private sector by legitimating blockchain products." To block the blockchain transformation, it is also possible "to provide an access-restricted blockchain To use the existing systems and structures in order to maintain the role and power of the middle-men, but also to provide the core functionalities of Blockchains. "</p>
<p>On the other hand, the authors recognize political options to keep the blockchain revolution small. The EU might respond "to the problems for which the blockchain is a solution, but without using blockchain itself." She could try to create the problem of blockchain from the world. In addition, it can "discourage the development by refusing to recognize the legitimacy of block-based transactions."</p>
<p>These possibilities of action are ambiguous. They leave scope for great innovation friendliness, but also hard regulation. Despite all this, the report is a major step in the way that EU political decision-makers know better what is possible with blockchain technology. It represents balanced opportunities and risks as well as potentials and limits.</p>
<p>Perhaps you can find the essence of the report in his last sentence: "Blockchain will not make people better, but it can make some in their daily lives faster, cheaper, safer and more transparent." Blockchaim technology is not a miracle. It alone can not solve social and political problems. Only people can do that. But the blockchain can help them do that.</p>
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