The EU confirms participation in blockchain race with new funding initiative

The European Commission, alongside the European Investments Fund, has confirmed a joint investment in the blockchain and AI industries within the European Union.

The total investment will be around 400 million Euros, 100 out of which will come directly from the EC and the EIF. The remaining 300 million will be gathered from multiple private companies around the European Union.

The funds will be directed towards European entrepreneurs and startups targeting the blockchain and AI technologies, which will be a breath of fresh air for hundreds of tech companies.

Before this initiative, most of these blockchain startups were forced to rely on funding from the United States, which forced them to either increase their prices from investor remands, or export the product completely in the US.

Very little support was being seen in the immediate region where the products were being developed, but thanks to newly started talks about joint regulations and blockchain adoption across the Union, European startups will manage to not only gain local funds but also sell their products locally.

This may not include cryptocurrencies

Blockchain projects are not necessarily cryptocurrency projects, and it’s very unlikely for the government to fund something that is pretty much anti-government. No, the funds will be directed towards startups that target things such as Decentralized Ledger Technology, Facial Recognition Technology and various other aspects of both the blockchain and AI.

The cry for help in the European Union about the lack of funding for blockchain projects started from quite a weird industry. The entertainment industry, which was slowly being swallowed up by Chinese behemoths like Tencent, was looking for a way out, which was innovation and innovation only.

If you follow this link, you’ll find out that most of that innovation came from adopting cryptocurrencies. However, the most popular platforms had a very similar feature, and that was having local tokens rather than altcoins or Bitcoin.

Having just the entertainment industry enjoy the fruits of blockchain’s innovation would have been quite humiliating for the European Union considering the US is investing more than $1 billion and China seems to be gearing up for a very blockchain-heavy 2020.

If the EU had not stepped up its funding game for this technology of the future, there was a high chance they’d fall behind massively, thus exposing themselves to cybersecurity dangers in the future.

Will this affect the UK?

The main question behind all of this is whether the funding initiative will affect UK startups as well. Considering that the UK will be leaving the European Union within the next couple of months, UK startupers needs to re-consider its location.

The EU is not a place where choosing a country to reside in is very hard. Most financial companies, for example, have decided to move shop to either Paris, Amsterdam or Frankfurt. For UK entrepreneurs that would be a perfect decision to move into a more accommodating country such as Germany or Austria, or even Denmark.

The main question remains for startups that have already focused their business model on the UK. For example, multiple espace rooms in London who have started implementing the blockchain in their business models would have a very hard time adjusting to a new environment, considering that they’ve already invested significant funds in marketing and promoting the business locally.

The escape rooms are a specificity, simply because they are part of the entertainment industry, which is the most active user of new blockchain tech. As of everything else, such as the development of blockchain software, most UK companies will not have to worry as they can simply outsource their technical side to Eastern Europe and not require too much investment from the government.

All in all, this decision from the EU may be gearing up towards the Union-wide adoption of the blockchain, and a potential launch of local digital currency. This would be both as an answer to China as well as to Facebook’s Libra.