The European Economic and Social Committee welcomes the potential of blockchain for the social economy, but calls for an appropriate framework for the technology. These are the main finding in a report by Giuseppe Guerini (Diversity Europe Group from Italy) adopted in mid-July. The body also plans to issue a report on blockchain and the single market by autumn 2019.
Blockchain is both a code and a public registry in which all transactions between users in the network are "recorded" sequentially, one after the other, with a high degree of transparency and without it being possible to make changes. In 2018, the Commission proposed developing a European Blockchain Partnership, which led to the creation of the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum, which has already published a number of reports on a range of subjects (innovation, data protection, public services, interoperability, digital identity).
In its report, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) highlights the social, cultural, political and economic potential of the technology. For example, it points out that blockchain makes it possible to make donations and fundraising secure and traceable, to clarify and secure the intellectual property rights of cultural organisations, to provide certification for skills, and to prevent fraud and counterfeiting in the agricultural sector. “Parallels can be drawn with the invention of the printing press”, said rapporteur Giuseppe Guerini. “As we know, the first printed book was a Bible. Now imagine that people understood the print media to be a way of printing only Bibles - that would not have been correct, because printing technology has revolutionised life in Europe”.
The EESC is nevertheless calling for a framework for developing this technology. The technology must respect the rules governing the processing of personal data, including the right to be forgotten, and must not be a threat to workers. [Link: http://bit.ly/2YAYdDQ ] (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)