Benelux organizations sign memorandum to strengthen further collaboration in blockchain within the region
BRUSSELS – February 21, 2018
Three organizations – B-Hive, the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (The LHoFT Foundation) and the Dutch Blockchain Coalition – today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will allow them to leverage their significant collaboration potential for mutual benefit around the topic of distributed ledger technology, otherwise known as blockchain, and allows them to recognize each other’s contribution towards this collaboration. The MoU confirms the mutual interest in collaboration and defines the general guidelines of collaboration among the organizations.
The MoU begins with a one-year collaboration period and includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:
- Exchange learnings and know-how on how blockchain technology can create added value for society and business in general;
- Work together on defining international/European standards for distributed ledger technology;
- Exchange learnings and know-how on managing identity on the blockchain from a self-sovereign identity perspective (the concept that people and businesses can manage their own identity data without relying on a central authority);
- Identify and collaborate on cross-border use cases;
- Help each other to extend respective know-how regarding DLT topics and themes.
The document was signed by Dave Remue, Program Manager of TrustHive at B-Hive, Alex Panican, Head of Partnerships and Ecosystem at the LHoFT Foundation and Frans van Ette, Coalition Manager of the Dutch Blockchain Coalition.
Dave Remue, Program Manager of TrustHive at B-Hive: “We are very excited about this Benelux blockchain alliance. It provides us a structure to exchange learnings about blockchain projects on a larger scale, and we look forward to those use cases that leverage blockchain technology across sectors and across borders where innovative startups and scale-ups work together with established organizations.”
Alex Panican, Head of Partnerships and Ecosystem at the LHoFT Foundation: “This cooperation between B-Hive, the Dutch Blockchain Coalition and the LHoFT is the confirmation of the strong and trusted collaboration between three tech-minded organizations in the Benelux region working side by side for mutual benefit around blockchain technology leveraging cross-border use cases.”
Frans van Ette, Coalition Manager of the Dutch Blockchain Coalition: “The rapid development of distributed ledger technologies (blockchain) leads to challenges that cannot be resolved within the borders of a single country. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to collaborate on the international stage in order to effectively coordinate the development of this young, disruptive technology. As in many other partnerships, the Benelux countries seek collaboration in this space. Our cooperation makes us stronger and our voices are better heard.”
About B-Hive
B-Hive is a European collaborative innovation fintech platform that brings together major banks, insurers and market infrastructure players. Together, we work on common innovation challenges and build bridges to the startup and scale-up community. We aim to put Brussels on the map as the smart gateway to Europe and leverage on the opportunities offered by the digital transformation for the financial services industry. We believe that building bridges between important fintech hubs and the Eurozone enables both European and non-European companies to grow and expand.
About the LHoFT
The LHoFT Foundation is a public-private sector initiative that drives technology innovation for Luxembourg’s Financial Services industry, connecting the domestic and international fintech community to develop solutions that shape the world of tomorrow. The other partners of the LHoFT initiative are Chamber of Commerce, the City of Luxembourg and the University of Luxembourg, and the initiative is supported by the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy and Ministry of State.
About the Dutch Blockchain Coalition
The Dutch Blockchain Coalition is a public-private partnership with the goal to create favorable conditions for reliable blockchain applications that are accepted by society at large. The Dutch Blockchain Coalition is founded by a group of government agencies, knowledge institutes and universities, as well as for-profit organizations operating in sectors such as energy, logistics and the finance industry. As such, the coalition represents a wide variety of relevant sectors. The partners of the coalition consider blockchain as an innovative, potentially disruptive technology that can create trust, build prosperity and enhance security for individuals, corporations, institutions and for society at large. The coalition works from the premise of tackling cross-sectoral challenges together and to build solutions jointly which is firmly rooted in the concept of blockchain.
