European Commission Launches Blockchain Regulatory Sandbox to Foster Innovation and Collaboration

The sandbox will connect public and private sector projects with relevant participating regulators for evaluations and consultations.

The European Commission has revealed the establishment of the European Blockchain Regulatory Sandbox, a pan-European framework for regulatory dialogues to increase legal certainty for innovative blockchain technology solutions.

The European Blockchain Sandbox has been established to enable conversations between regulators and innovators regarding potential applications of blockchain technology in both the private and public sectors. The sandbox offers a secure and confidential environment where legal advice and regulatory guidance will be available. These dialogues will take place across various industry sectors and geographic regions to help identify and disseminate best practices for the greater benefit of the EU/EEA blockchain community. Any blockchain infrastructure can be used for proposed use cases in the sandbox.

The project, which is financially supported by the Digital Europe Programme, will be operational between 2023 and 2026. Its purpose is to assist 20 projects annually, such as public sector applications for the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure, and the selection of projects will be based on requests for expressions of interest. It is accessible to businesses from all sectors and public entities for projects that are either close to market or in the early operational phase. These projects must involve Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and other technologies.

In addition, there will be an annual award for the most innovative regulator participating in the sandbox. The sandbox will be managed by a consortium led by Bird & Bird and its consulting arm OXYGY, with assistance from WBNoDE and web designers from Spindox. The selection of projects for the sandbox will be overseen by a panel of independent academic experts.

The European Blockchain Regulatory Sandbox will collaborate with other relevant sandbox frameworks, such as the EU Digital Finance Platform.