European Commission to launch blockchain regulatory sandbox by 2022

The European Commission in collaboration with the 30-country alliance called the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) plans to launch a pan-European blockchain regulatory sandbox by 2022.

Per an update to the official webpage for the commission’s Digital Innovation and Blockchain team on Sep. 23, the European Commission will work with EBP on the sandbox to test use cases of blockchain and digital assets in the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure, or EBSI. The EBSI is a joint initiative of the European commission and the EBP that aims to deliver cross-border digital public services across the EU using blockchain technology.

Outside of the EBSI, the sandbox would also test use cases such as data portability, smart contracts and digital identity in sectors including health, environment, mobility and energy.

The Digital Innovation and Blockchain team also mentioned that the commission was paying special attention to developing a regulatory framework that will support the digitization of assets through tokenization and also smart contracts. 

This comes only a week after the reports of the European Union’s plans to establish a regulatory framework by 2024 to promote the adoption of blockchain and digital assets in the financial sector. 

In March this year, Cointelegraph also reported that the French market regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers — or AMF — was considering a regulatory sandbox for the European Union to study the impact of security tokens.