The European Innovation Council (EIC) has awarded 5 million euros ($5.6 million) to six blockchain projects to support the global blockchain ecosystem. The awards are being granted within the initiative program “Blockchains for Social Good”.

The prizes are conferred in the domain of financial inclusion, areas of traceability, fair trade, and decentralized circular economy to promote the blockchain development. As per the prerequisite for all these awards, all the projects had offered their initiatives in open source.

The startups which bagged the awards include the following startups:

Dutch content authenticity firm WordProof, Italian digital market place project Prosume, Oxfam’s UnBlocked Cash Project OXBBU, French e-commerce platform CK2020, and the London-based food and product traceability company Provenance and blockchain financial inclusion solution GMeRitS, by Finnish Aalto University.

Recipients Area of development

Dutch firm WordProof which fights against online fake news and plagiarism and is focused on rebuilding trust and transparency on the internet received €1 million ($1.1 million).

The UK based food and product traceability firm Provenance received €1 million for its proof Points system.

Another prize recipient GMeRitS focuses to bring in a wholesome change in society by building alternate economic models with blockchain as the foundation.

Another recipient OXBBU which is in partnership with Ireland’s Oxfam and French fintech Sempo is developing blockchain-based solutions for delivering cash vouchers aid in disaster-affected regions.

Judges had a dilemma over the last prize between the French cooperative Klero’s e-comm. dispute settlement platform CKH2020 and Italian energy trading system Prosume, thus the prize was split equally between them.

After the EIC announced solicitations for the awards in May 2018, a total number of 176 entries including the individuals, firms, and public institutions from 43 countries had applied for the award program. The entries were closed on 3 September 2019. Initially, five awards have been announced by the EIC with 1 million euros each as award prices. But eventually, the fifth prize was split between two firms to extend the scope of the prize.   

The EIC announcement states:

“It is worth pointing out that one of the requirements of the prize was to submit solutions developed in Open Source. This will enable more innovators to benefit from the advanced technological solutions developed by the prize winners and the other members of the Prize”.

More about the European Innovation Council (EIC)

European Innovation Council (EIC) has been established by the European Commission (EC) in 2017 to promote and reward “high-risk high impact ideas, which can turn science into new business.”

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Jayashree Ingle

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA