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Blockchain and Distributed Digital Ledger Technologies (RP2025)

(A.) Policy and legislation

(A.1) Policy objectives

Blockchain has great potential in providing an infrastructure for trusted, decentralised and disintermediated services beyond the financial sector.

While the FinTech industry has been an early adopter because of its early use case of Bitcoin, blockchain is benefiting and has the potential to transform many other industries. It is considered a foundational technology that some compare to the rise of the Internet in the early 90s. More than a technology, it could lead to a major institutional innovation by redefining the way we operate transactions, store and access information and share data (e.g. empowering patients to securely share e-health records and decide who to grant access to their data).

Many possible applications are being envisaged to deliver efficiency, immutability and transparency to the financial services industry, Fintech/Suptech actors, trust funds (e.g., for development or humanitarian programmes), eHealth, education, eGovernment, public registries, security certification of Internet of Things, Trusted Artificial Intelligence, food safety, managing intellectual property rights, extending eIDAS framework for eID management, etc.

It has also great potential for the private sector, in trading, contracting, supply chain management, traceability along industrial supply chains (e.g. on social & environmental conditions of work, on material composition or on the maintenance history of the item) and much more. It may also transform the governance of private organisations and of companies (concept of Decentralised Autonomous Organisation - DAO). Furthermore, from a regulatory and supervisory point of view, it could provide regulators with the same view into the data as the companies they are regulating, thereby reducing fraud and compliance costs and facilitating auditing. However, this process is hindered by a lack of coherent harmonisation and interoperability that constitute obstacles to cross-border and cross-sector transactions. European citizens, SMEs, Industry, Public sector and other relevant stakeholders need to support innovation within a safe and future-proof technological and regulatory environment, ensuring appropriate interoperability, transparency, accessibility, monitoring and governance. Provisions should be taken at all stages to be in line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), electronic IDentification, Authentication, and Trust Services Regulation (eIDAS), the ePrivacy Directive, Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD) and other relevant legal requirements.

In the context of the European Digital Single Market where the amount of online transactions and data is exploding, setting the right conditions for the advent of an open, trustworthy, transparent, compliant and authenticated transaction system is a real challenge for the EU. Existing decentralised environments lack trust, accountability, interoperability, regulatory certainty and mature governance models to interact among themselves and also with centralised systems.

The Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 of Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) entered into force in June 2023 and started to be implemented. The initiative aims to establish a comprehensive legal framework governing crypto assets service providers, including issuers of crypto-assets that were not previously subject to EU financial services regulations such as MiFiD 2, Directive (EU) 2014/65), as well as providers of related services. It is specifically applicable to the issuance and trading of tokens within non-MiFID DLT-based markets. The Regulation(EU) 2022/858 introduces a pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology. Additionally, Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 on digital operational resilience for the financial sector (Digital Operational Resilience Act, or DORA) was adopted in June 2022, and shall apply from 17 January 2025.

The Regulation (EU) 2024/1183 “amending Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 establishing a framework for a European Digital Identity” (eIDAS2) was adopted on 30 April 2024 and entered into on 20 May 2024. It introduces a new trust service for electronic ledgers, and the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet, identification means for European physical and legal persons based on Self Sovereign Identity principles.

The Data Act Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 entered into force on 11 January 2024 and aims to harmonise rules on fair access to and use of data, which, among other provisions, includes essential requirements regarding smart-contracts for data sharing.

(A.2) EC perspective and progress report

In order to engage in and contribute to the development of the needed standards, the Commission follows up on the standardisation activities related to Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies carried out by the different SDOs, such as ISO, ITU-T, ETSI or CEN & CENELEC. This includes the organisation of workshops bring together standards development organisations, fora and consortia active in international Blockchain/DLT standardisation, as well as key stakeholders, and representatives of PPPs like INATBA and deployment initiatives like the EBP (see A.3).

Moreover the EC support R&I projects through Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe that contribute as well as to standardisation activities in ISO, CEN & CENELEC, ETSI, ITU-T, IEEE, W3C and IETF, considering also methods and tools for environmental and innovation management of DLTs. Two projects, Blockstand and Seeblocks, funded by the Digital Europe Programme support the participation of EU experts in those activities.

Horizon Europe and InvestEU programmes by the European Commission support collaborative research and innovation projects, as well as some funding being allocated to standardisation via projects such as Stand-ICT.eu and Standardisation Booster. The Digital Europe Programme supports the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), the EU blockchain regulatory sandbox and respective projects mentioned in C.2 below.

(A.3) References

(B.) Requested actions and progress in standardisation

(B.1) Requested actions

Action 1: The standardisation community should continue analysing possible standardisation gaps and identify solutions to fill them, taking into account also other chapters in the Rolling Plan including actions and references to Blockchain and DLT and their applications. Activities may focus on governance and interoperability, electronic ledgers, organisational frameworks and methodologies, processes and products evaluation schemes, Blockchain and distributed ledger guidelines, smart technologies, objects, distributed computing devices and data services.

Action 2: Continue identifying use cases which are relevant for EU (including EU regulatory requirements like from GDPR, AI Act, Data Act, ePrivacy, eIDAS, AMLD, TOOP, CSRD, etc.) also leveraging on the yearly event “Joining Forces for Blockchain Standardisation” co-organised by the European Commission and INATBA (see section C.2) with special focus on Smart Contracts, Digital Identity, Governance, Interoperability, CBDC/Crypto Assets; submit them to standardisation bodies, including CEN & CENELEC and ETSI, and also ISO, ITU.

Action 3: Continue identification of actual blockchain/DLT implementations in the EU and assess the need for standardisation, harmonisation and workforce training or adaptation.

Action 4: Standardisation of the operation and reference implementation of permissioned and permissionless distributed ledgers and distributed applications, with the purpose of creating an open ecosystem of industrial interoperable solutions.

Action 5: Standards Development Organisations active in blockchain/DLT standardisation to liaise and coordinate to take advantage of synergies and maximise resources, including with relevant public and private partnerships

Action 6: ESOs to develop standards in line with the Data Act Regulation, in particular regarding essential requirements for smart-contracts. In addition, it would be recommended to explore a general framework for Governance of the European networks based on DLT to allow the flow of smart contracts between different networks.

Action 7: ESOs when relevant to develop the standards needed for the introduction of Digital Euro (CBDC), if the European Central Bank (ECB) decides to its issuance, and for digital assets (MiCA Regulation), in particular to ensure interoperability with smart-contracts, legacy systems, etc, linked with either CBDCs or private money. As per Art. 24 of the draft digital euro Regulation proposed by the Commission in June 2023, to ensure conditional payments on digital euro, the ECB may adopt detailed measures, rules and standards that PSPs can use to ensure interoperable conditional digital euro payment transactions. ESOs to liaise with ECB and in particular with the Digital euro scheme rulebook development group to ensure coordination between the standards for conditional payments involving digital euro and other existing or future standards.

Action 8: SDOs to develop standards and technical guidance, methods and tools for environmental and innovation management of DLTs to support the industry competitiveness and sustainable growth and ensure sustainability and safety for consumers. In particular In the context of the standardisation described in Action 7, SDOs to develop standards towards assessing environmental and sustainability impact including, in particular, CO2 footprint and energy consumption of different blockchains/DLTs, MiCA, EU Sustainable Finance taxonomy.

Action 9: Standardisation efforts to analyze and if needed, enhance the interoperability and international compatibility of the current and pending EBSI topics and capabilities previously mentioned.

Action 10: ESOs to develop standards in line with the eIDAS2 regulation, in particular regarding essential requirements for electronic ledgers.

(C.) Activities and additional information

(C.1) Related standardisation activities

ISO

ISO/TC 307: Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies has wide global outreach and involves majority of the EU Member States works with vocabulary, reference architecture, taxonomy and ontology (WG1), smart contracts (WG3), security, privacy and identity (JWG4 with ISO/IEC JTC1/SC27), governance (WG5), use cases (WG6), interoperability (WG7) and NFT (WG8).

For more information please see: https://www.iso.org/committee/6266604/x/catalogue/

ISO/TC 154: Processes, data elements and documents in commerce, industry and administration works with data interchange processes of blockchain based negotiable maritime bill of lading related to e-Commerce
platform (ISO/WD 5909) and Processes, data elements and documents in commerce, industry and administration —Trusted communication platforms for electronic documents — Part 3: Blockchain-based implementation guideline (ISO/AWI TR 19626-3)

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29 Coding of audio, picture, multimedia and hypermedia information has a work item on Smart contracts for media (FDIS 21000-23).

IEC

SyC Smart Energy has a working group Decentralized energy trading infrastructure which has links with blockchain/DLT.

IEEE

The IEEE Computer Society Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers (BDL) Standards Committee focuses on developing standards for blockchain-based digital asset management, digital asset classification, a digital asset exchange model, blockchain identity key management and on a digital identity system framework. In addition, the “Blockchain” Working Group develops a family of horizontal and vertical blockchain standards, address interoperability of blockchains, naming, cross-chain transaction consistency as well as data authentication and communication. IEEE also runs a pre-standardisation project on digital inclusion and agency, which leverages blockchain technology.

The IEEE Consumer Technology Society Blockchain Standards Committee (CTS/BSC) is focused on “Standardizing the decentralized world” from a consumer perspective. The scope of the Standards Committee is to develop and maintain standards, recommended practices and guides for blockchain technologies and applications, especially from the consumers’ perspective, using an open and accredited process, and to advocate them on a global basis.

For more information, see: https://ieee-sa.imeetcentral.com/eurollingplan/.

ITU-T

The ITU-T Focus Group on Application of Distributed Ledger Technology (FG-DLT) concluded its work on 1 August 2019 and produced a number of deliverables, which were transferred to ITU-T Study Groups 16 (Multimedia) and 17 (Security).

More information at: https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/focusgroups/dlt/Pages/default.aspx

In addition, some blockchain retaliated activities are taking place in SG5, SG11, SG13 and SG20.

ITU-T SG5 has approved Recommendation L.1317 “Guidelines on energy efficient blockchain systems” which focuses on blockchain energy demands and how these can be optimized. This Recommendation aims to explain the energy demand of blockchain, to define the blockchain energy model and to describe the energy efficiency parameters that can be calibrated in order to enhance the corresponding energy efficiency.

ITU-T SG11 developed Recommendation ITU-T Q.5026 “Signalling Requirements and Protocol for Providing Network-oriented Data Integrity Verification Service based on Blockchain in IMT-2020 network” and Q.4046 “Interoperability testing requirements of blockchain as a service”. Currently, SG11 is developing new draft standard Q.BaaS-iopt-ts “Test suite for interoperability testing of blockchain as a service”.

ITU-T SG13 has approved Recommendation ITU-T Y.2247 “Framework and Requirements of Network-oriented Data Integrity Verification Service based on Blockchain in Future Network” and Y.3081 “Self-Controlled Identity based on Blockchain: Requirements and Framework”.

ITU-T SG20 has approved Recommendation ITU-T Y.4560 “ Blockchain-based data exchange and sharing for supporting Internet of things and smart cities and communities ”, Recommendation ITU-T Y.4561 “Blockchain-based Data Management for supporting Internet of things and smart cities and communities”, Recommendation ITU-T Y.4907 “Reference architecture of blockchain-based unified KPI data management for smart sustainable cities”, Recommendation ITU-T Y.4476 “OID-based resolution framework for transaction of distributed ledger assigned to IoT resources”, Recommendation ITU-T Y.4486 “Framework of cross edge decentralized service by using DLT and edge computing technologies for IoT devices”, Recommendation ITU-T Y.4491 “Framework of blockchain-based self-organization networking in IoT environments”, Recommendation ITU-T Y.4492 “Decentralized IoT communication architecture based on information centric networking and blockchain” and “IoT requirements and capabilities for support of blockchain” (Y.4227). ITU-T SG20 is currently working on “Capability and functional architecture of blockchain of things peers” (Y.IoT-BoT-peer), “Functional requirements and architecture of blockchain-based activity logs management for IoT data processing and management” (Y.4508 (ex Y.DPM-alm-fra)) and “Requirements and functional architecture for blockchain-based sustainable and cooperative digital-twin creation system” (Y.DT-CS).

More info: https://itu.int/go/tsg20

ITU-T SG3 agreed on Technical Report ITU-T DSTR-IoT-DLT-Accounting, “Accounting and billing aspects in Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem and integrated approach using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)”, and Technical Report ITU-T DSTR_DLTUSF, “The Potential of Distributed Ledger Technology to Improve Management of Universal Service Funds” (under publication). ITU-T SG3 is currently working on a draft new Technical Report ITU-T TR_DLT “Usage of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to handle accounting, policy, regulatory and economic issues in the international telecommunications/ICT domain”.

W3C

W3C has formed a Blockchain Community Group, which is studying and evaluating technologies related to blockchain and use-cases such as interbank communications. Its work is complemented by a group on Blockchain and Decentralized Apps and one on Digital Assets.

W3C created the Decentralized Identifier Working Group (DID WG) https://www.w3.org/2019/did-wg/ URL-based identifiers (URIs) in use on the Web today (2019) require that the identifier be leased from an authority such as a Domain Name Registrar. A Decentralized Identifier (DID) is an identifier that does not need to be leased; its creation and use is possible without a central authority to manage it.

In addition to the “Blockchain Community Group” W3C has also a “Credential Community Group” (https://www.w3.org/community/credentials/) which has developed key standards for SSI (Self-Sovereign Identity) including Decentralized Identifiers (DID) Data model and Syntax and Verifiable Claims Use Cases and Data Model.

IETF

IETF IRTF

The Decentralized Internet Infrastructure Research Group (DINRG) investigates open research issues in decentralizing infrastructure services such as trust management, identity management, name resolution, resource/asset ownership management, and resource discovery. The focus of DINRG is on infrastructure services that can benefit from decentralization or that are difficult to realize in local, potentially connectivity-constrained networks. Other topics of interest are the investigation of economic drivers and incentives and the development and operation of experimental platforms. DINRG will operate in a technology- and solution-neutral manner, i.e., while the RG has an interest in distributed ledger technologies, it is not limited to specific technologies or implementation aspects.

https://wiki.ietf.org/en/group/iab/Multi-Stake-Holder-Platform#h-336-blockchain-and-distributed-digital-ledger-technologies

IETF SATP WG

The Secure Asset Transfer Protocol (SATP) aims to standardize an interoperability protocol for distributed networks, enabling the transfer of data and assets between different networks. While the primary focus has been on distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) due to extensive research in this area, the working group also considers other types of systems and networks. This makes SATP applicable to scenarios such as interoperability between centralized systems and distributed networks.

CEN & CENELEC

CEN & CENELEC established CEN/CLC/JTC19 on Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies for specific European standardisation needs (for example in the context of EU regulations such as GDPR and eIDAS) not included in the ISO/TC 307 work program and, when necessary, for the adoption of international standards already available.

CEN-CLC/JTC 19 has 3 Working Groups:

  • WG 1 “Decentralised Identity Management”
  • WG 2 “Environmental Sustainability”
  • WG 3 “Personal identifiable information (PII) in Blockchain and DLT”

More information on CEN/CLC/JTC 19 is available here.

CEN & CENELEC Sector Forum Energy Management & Energy Transition (SFEM) starting from April 2021 has a dedicated focus group for Blockchain and DLT which brings together stakeholders coming from the energy sector as well as from academic and research bodies. This focus group prepared an overview of blockchain/DLT related activities and applications in the electricity sector (incl. sector coupling) and elaborated a complete view of the current challenges (technical and non-technical) regulatory, RD&I, Pre-normative research (PNR), use cases, and standardization needs in the field of “DLT in energy”. The final report of the group was prepared in November 2022 for the review of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy and was made available in 2023.

ETSI

Permissioned distributed ledgers are the kind of DLT best qualified to address most of the use cases of interest to the industry and governmental institutions.

ETSI ISG PDL is committed to analyse and provide the foundations for the operation of permissioned distributed ledgers, with the ultimate purpose of creating an open ecosystem of industrial solutions to be deployed by different sectors, fostering the application of these technologies, and therefore contributing to consolidating the trust and dependability on information technologies supported by global, open telecommunications networks. The ISG PDL incorporates research and new development results in the field as they become available, especially in aspects related to smart contracts, interoperability among ledgers, data management, and trust and reputation support. The group is actively working to facilitate the coordination and cooperation between relevant standardization bodies and open source projects. ETSI via ISG PDL has published Specifications on the Distributed Blockchain “Smart contracts” and “reference architecture”. It is now working on the Specification of Redactable Block, Block Hashing, Reputation, etc. and collaborating with TC ESI on eIDAS and in support of smart contracts in the context of the Data Act Regulation.

ISG IPE (IPv6 Enhanced Innovation) studies how IPv6 could be applied to blockchain technology. The GR “IPv6-based Blockchain” outlines how the properties of IPv6, can be leveraged to achieve new direct payment mechanisms for users of the blockchain. IPE is working on GR “IPv6 and Cloud using Data Block Matrix for Food Supply Chain Tracking and Tracing” which introduces blockchain technology in the Food Supply Chain for food tracking and tracing.

TC ESI plans to work on policy and security requirements for use of ledgers as a trust service in support of smart contracts as well as on the use of EU Digital Identity Wallets and advanced and qualified electronic signatures / seals for identification with smart contracts. Such standards will support both the proposed Data Act and the proposed eIDAS2 regulation which establishes a framework for trust services in regards to the creation and maintenance of (qualified) electronic ledgers.

OASIS

The EEA Community Projects, formerly known as the Ethereum OASIS Open Project, is the hub for open source-based standards development in the Ethereum industry. It aims to facilitate Ethereum’s longevity, interoperability, and ease of integration and intends to develop documentation and shared test suites that facilitate new features and enhancements to the Ethereum protocol. The projects seek to address interoperability of implementations. EEA projects include Ethereum projects like the Baseline Protocol and JSON-RPC API documentation under its stewardship.

The Baseline Protocol OASIS Open Project combines advances in cryptography, messaging, and blockchain to deliver secure and private business processes at low cost via the public Ethereum Mainnet.

UNECE

The United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) has developed two White Papers on Blockchain and a Sectoral Use Case paper. The first White Paper provides an overview of the base principles of Distributed Ledger Technology; the second explores the needs for standardisation in this area and concludes a strong needs for semantic data standards in order to ensure clear understanding between the issuer of information on a Blockchain and all users of that data. The UN/CEFACT Core Component Library can cover the data needs in trade transactions. The final UN/CEFACT Blockchain paper explores the specific needs of each sector (Maritime Transport, Suppy Chain, Agriculture, etc.) and provides a number of use cases.

See: White Paper 1: https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/cefact/GuidanceMaterials/WhitePaperBlockchain.pdf

White Paper 2: https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/cefact/GuidanceMaterials/WhitePaperBlockchain_TechApplication.pdf

Use Case paper: https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/cefact/cf_plenary/2019_plenary/CEFACT_2019_INF03.pdf

UN/CEFACT CCL: https://www.unece.org/cefact/codesfortrade/unccl/ccl_index.html

UN/CEFACT continues work on interoperability of ledgers. See: https://uncefact.unece.org/display/uncefactpublic/Cross+border+Inter-ledger+exchange+for+Preferential+CoO+using+Blockchain

(C.2) Other activities related to standardisation

INATBA

INATBA, the International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications, has been launched with the support of the European Commission on 3 April 2019. It brings together representatives of the stakeholders across the value chain: industry, startups and SMEs, policy makers, international organisations, regulators, civil society and standard-setting bodies to support blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to be mainstreamed and scaled-up across multiple sectors. It offers developers and users of DLT a global forum to interact with regulators and policy makers and bring blockchain technology to the next stage.

INATBA together with the European Commission from 2022 co-organises yearly the International Seminar on Joining Forces on Blockchain Standardisation (see section A.3 for the 2020 and 2021 iterations).

On 11-13 November 2019 INATBA together with EU Blockchain Observatory and forum, Alastria and the European Commission co-organised the Global blockchain congress CONVERGENCE, of which the next iteration is being anticipated in 2023.

INATBA has a Working Group on standardisation to support the development and adoption of interoperability guidelines, specifications and global standards, to enhance trusted, traceable, user-centric digital services, liaise with standards development organisations and to develop contributions to standardisation, such as use cases and requirements. Relevant for standardisation are also the interoperability and governance working groups.

https://inatba.org/

EBSI

The European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) has been set up on 10 April 2018 following the agreement of 28 European countries which signed a joint declaration to cooperate in the establishment of a European blockchain services infrastructure (EBSI) that will support the delivery of cross-border public services, through interoperability and open interfaces and with the highest standards of security. Today the EBP includes all EU Member States, Norway and Liechtenstein. The EBSI initiative has advanced in the following topics:

  • EBSI created a generic profile for the full life-cycle of Verifiable Credentials and Verifiable Presentations for all use cases that involve the request, storage and presentation of personal data. This profile was based on the W3c specification of Verifiable Credential 1.0 data model (currently updated version v 1.1 has been released), the GDPR and other relevant EU Regulations.
  • Natural person and legal entities are identified in EBSI by decentralized identifiers, a pseudonym which is resolvable using DID Documents. This data structure is based on the DID Document data model. and it contains information associated with a DID, such as verification method and services to interact with the subject of the DID.
  • EBSI has designed and implemented two DID methods, which are the mechanism by which a particular type of DID and its associated DID document are managed.
  • EBSI has also designed and implemented verification services for digital information, which will enable to check the status of verifiable credentials and other information data. These services can verify information related to the authenticity of products, digital documents of natural persons or data related to legal entities.
  • All the information that supports the EBSI Trust Framework is stored in the EBSI trusted registries. This repository of data does not contain personal information and is stored in EBSI ledgers. EBSI has worked in the definition of these registries, and the accreditation objects that enable entities to play a role in this trust framework. Trusted registries are managed via authoritative channels.

In the short-term EBSI will address pending capabilities such as selective disclosure of information contained in a verifiable credential by using techniques such as BBS+ signatures represented in a JSON-LD structure. Other topic that will be faced in EBSI is the implementation of JAdES signatures to permit the verification of verifiable credentials and presentations in a more interoperable way.

BlockStand

BlockStand was launched in May 2023, funded under the European Union’s Digital Europe Programme grant agreement no. 101102757. It supports the participation of European experts in blockchain standardisation activities at both European and international levels through and Experts’ Selection Process. Other important outputs include a Standardisation Gaps & Recommendations Atlas, a proposal for a European Blockchain Standardisation Roadmap, and a European Blockchain Leadership Outlook. An Executive Management Board, comprised of high-level experts in the blockchain field, also provides strategic steering. https://blockstand.eu/

SeeBlocks

SEEBLOCKS.eu, launched in May 2023, is a 24-month Digital Europe Programme project that aims at delivering a targeted, democratic, industry-driven initiative to support European interests in standardisation within the Blockchain/DLT domain, bringing together EU researchers and open standards specialists, along with industry and policy experts with the primary goal to provide a tangible contribution to the presence of European players in International Blockchain/DLT standardisation, through 4 recurring Selecting and Engaging Procedures (SEPs). https://seeblocks.eu/

(C.3) Additional information

One direction of blockchain technology innovation in recent years was towards a highly promising area of secure, tamper-proof public data, eliminating the need for initial trust among involved stakeholders.

The clarification and mutual definition of several aspects of blockchain technology (such as blockchain interoperability, governance, trust, security of blockchain and of the underlying cryptographic mechanisms, blockchain compliance to legislation, the impact of blockchain on different sectors, etc) are crucial prerequisites to introducing the technology to society.

Global blockchain congress CONVERGENCE: https://blockchainconvergence.com/

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