The EU wasted €60M on a pointless fintech fad — but the Belgians won’t let it die – POLITICO

At least that is the case until the Belgian Minister of Digitalization, Mathieu Michel, decided to take advantage of the Belgian presidency of the EU, which expires in June, to rally the support of other member states of the EU. EU backs revived version of troubled project.

Today, under the cover of a possible evolution of the “metaverse”, Michel has obtained the support of a dozen states for the project. Yet concerns remain that the project’s ill-defined parameters and vague mandate could lead the EU, under Michel’s leadership, to spend even more money, good money, to try to keep the whole thing alive .

Michel himself is not worried about the prophets of doom. As a self-confessed “true believer” in blockchain technology – which grew out of the decentralized settlement systems that power Bitcoin – he is convinced that it is only a matter of time before the technology proves itself.

“Even if you lose 800,000 euros, compared to what it could bring in, it’s not a waste of money,” Michel assured POLITICO in an interview in January. “It’s not about deciding or even being sure that it will be the “The goal is to explore and do new things. “

With this in mind, since the start of the Belgian presidency in January, Michel has focused on removing what can be salvaged from the old EBSI initiative and finding ways to reuse it under the new expanded mandate of the metaverse.

Unsightly fall

Born in 2018, EBSI was founded as a sort of public-private partnership between the Commission, European technology consortia and the 27 EU member countries, with a mandate to test public sector blockchain projects.