D3.2 Report of results of the early public consultation

This deliverable includes the results of the first SEEBLOCKS.eu Open Consultation on "Shaping the future of Blockchain Standards in Europe"

The Public Consultation instrument is a fundamental pillar of EC policy. It constitutes an important component of the Commission’s commitment to guaranteeing transparency and inclusiveness for all those citizens and stakeholders affected by its decisions. A Public Consultation invites stakeholders of all types, ranging from organisations to private citizens, to provide feedback on policy-related activities before they are finalised, in order to ensure that a broad range of legitimate needs and requirements are taken into consideration.

More and more, the boundaries between technology-related and policy-related activities are blurring, given the increasing ability of new technologies to affect the lives of citizens. The AI Act has been only the most recent, highly-publicised example of the need to address the capability of a technology to have a profound effect not only on markets, but also on society in general.

Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology is another example: the technology forms the basis of some of the most ambitious and forward-looking EC policies to enhance the lives of its citizens, from Identity Management, to sustainable supply chains, to improved interaction with public administrations. For this reason, SEEBLOCKS.eu from the very start planned for two public consultations, directed both at those working in related technological domains and those interested stakeholders from all domains.

In this first, early public consultation, we sought feedback that would help us to either confirm our current work plans or institute course corrections as necessary going forward. As the reader will discover, the results have provided valuable insights on technological aspects of current Blockchain/DLT standardisation activities (the main thrust of SEEBLOCKS.eu). Equally valuable, however, has been the feedback on the needs and perceptions of both market and societal stakeholders concerning the technology itself. This feedback will help us to ensure that our outreach, awareness-raising, and capacity-building activities adequately address the issues raised by our respondents about the role of Blockchain/DLT technology in today’s society.

We thank all those who have responded to this first public consultation, and hope that they will find the results as provocative and stimulating as we have. In the meantime, we look forward to the second public consultation at a later date in the project.