What is European Blockchain Service Infrastructure (EBSI)?
What is EBSI?
In a process that began in 2018, 29 countries (all EU member states, including Hungary, plus Norway and Liechtenstein) created the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) at the initiative of the European Commission. The aim of the partnership is to create blockchain-based services for the benefit of citizens, society and the economy.
The aim of the partnership is to implement the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI).
The partnership expects EBSI to make use of the benefits of blockchain technology
provide cross-border services to governments and municipalities, as well as to organizations related to them by verifying the authenticity of the data generated during the operation of the participating organizations and increasing trust in the services.
EBSI started deploying nodes of a distributed network in 2020. The network supports applications serving selected use cases. EBSI is the first blockchain infrastructure that covers the entire EU and serves the government-municipal sector, in line with European values and regulations.
Who does EBSI serve?
Governments and municipalities
It helps governments and municipalities protect against fraud, increase trust and security in services, and make it simple and cost-effective to verify the authenticity of data.
Enterprises
It helps businesses to more easily cooperate with government and municipal organizations, reducing administration and compliance costs.
Citizens
It helps citizens to determine who can use their data and for what, to keep it safe and to use the certificates obtained in one EU member state in other member states.
Supported use cases
Identity (SSI)
(The terms “Self Sovereign Identity” behind the abbreviations “identity” and “SSI” are not easy to translate into Hungarian. The term “identity” in this context means that the same person can have multiple “identities”, e.g. as an employee, student or bank customer. Each identity may contain different attributes, which can partially change independently of each other. There are identities for which some government body or service provider issues a certificate, such as the name in the official state register, driver’s license or bank account statement . The term “Self Sovereign Identity” covers the direction of development that wants to place the decisions regarding the storage and use of such identities in the hands of individuals as much as possible.)
One of the goals of EBSI is to implement a “Self Sovereign Identity” model in Europe, which supports individuals and companies to create and use their identities in a cross-border way.
For example: it helps citizens to create a digital wallet in which they can store the certificates they have in digital format and use them in other countries.
Diploma
A concrete example of the general use case above, the diploma, received a special focus. The goal of the development direction is for citizens to be able to use their qualification certificates obtained in educational institutions in digital form, which will significantly reduce inspection costs and increase confidence in the authenticity of such documents.
For example: students or recent graduates who want to gain admission to an institution or apply for a job.
Traceability
With the help of blockchain technology, it is possible to create audit trails that can be used for audit purposes, to automate compliance checks, and to prove the integrity of data.
For example: it helps entrepreneurs who want to start a company, apply for grants, or store and submit documents.
Verifiability of shared data
It helps to prove the authenticity of shared data, such as companies’ VAT or Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) identifiers.
For example: it helps tax authorities to share data with each other across borders
Structure
The EBSI platform is a two-level network without a central hub.
The European Commission operates EBSI hubs at EU level.
The authorities of the member states that have been authorized to do so by the EBP policy group operate EBSI nodes at the member state level.
During the planning of EBSI, the goal was to make the infrastructure market-friendly, use open standards, and have a transparent management model.
The European Blockchain Partnership has defined the following five key principles:
- public good
- governance
- harmonization
- open source
- compliance with EU regulations (GDPR, eIDAS, etc.).
The structure of EBSI nodes includes three layers:
The infrastructure layer provides the general capabilities and connectivity to blockchain networks.
The storage layer covers the blockchain and local data storage protocols supported by EBSI.
The basic service layer contains standard interfaces that offer connection to third parties developing the application and ensure that the services comply with the guiding principles defined by the European Blockchain Partnership.
EBSI in numbers
At the time of writing our article
- EUR 4 million was spent on EBSI in 2019-20
- more than 300 experts contributed to its operation
- It has 25 nodes in operation
- 11 more nodes are under construction
