 "The adoption of blockchain is still in its early stages across EMEA, although at different speeds in different sectors and geographies. Overall, however, there is strong belief in thelong-term impact of blockchain to help transform business and government services. Government organizations are coming to the forefront in spearheading the adoption of blockchain. The European Commission has supported the signing of a 27-country pact on blockchain, the European Blockchain Partnership, that will see EU-wide collaboration on regulatory and technical matters. The EU will allocate €300 million in blockchain investment over the next three years. It has also established the European Blockchain Observatory toundertake research on how blockchain can be applied. In the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates has developed a visionary strategy for blockchain with theintent of having 50 percent of government transactions on blockchain by 2021. Elsewhere, individual countries are working to advance their own specific initiatives, such as Sweden’s blockchain-based land registry project. At a regulatory level, many of the national and regional regulators are adopting a wait-and-see approach, preferring to explore and understand blockchain’s regulatory and policy implications before moving forward. ... Despite this significant activity, a number of factors areimpacting the pace of adoption: • Reputational issues with cyptocurrencies are contaminating blockchain investment decisions and causing board-level concerns • Slow progress on the development of the necessary regulatory frameworks, legislation, and industry standards that are required to move from pilots to production • A lack of available talent with blockchain expertise • Governance challenges around consortia While progress is being made on preparing the ground or further development in locations, such as the United Kingdom, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, Ireland, and Switzerland, it is also clear that there is more to accomplishto accelerate blockchain adoption in this region over the next two to three years." Read more >> |