On 6 March 2019, developers and users of blockchain technology from all sectors of the economy gathered in Brussels to found the International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications. The 105 founding members of INATBA both come from developers of blockchain technologies (eg.: Alastria, Consensys, Ethereum, Consensys, IBM, SAP and Fujitsu) and from users (eg.: AB Inbev, Barclays, BPCE, BBVA, Intesa SanPaolo, Deutsche Boerse, Boerse Stuttgart, ENGIE etc). The majority of founders are start-ups and scale-ups, which is typical for the early stage of this transformational technology.

While there is no shortage of blockchain initiatives worldwide, none has so far brought together developers and users of Distributed Ledger Technologies with policy makers on a global scale. Yet, this is precisely INATBA's ambition. INATBA's Governmental Advisory Board will assemble experts from governmental bodies in Europe, America, Asia and Australia. These experts will work with the industry to ensure that blockchain protocols and applications comply with applicable legislation and standards on regional and/or global scale. In Europe, this will in particular be values such as data privacy, transparency and open governance. The European Commission for which I work will join the Governmental Advisory Board together with representatives of EU Member States. INATBA will also closely work with CEN/CENELEC and ISO to promote interoperability standards.

The INATBA is but one initiative by the EU Commission to support blockchain innovation. In February 2018, the Commission launched the European Blockchain Observatory & Forum which maps blockchain innovation and serves as a pan-European think tank. In April 2018, EU Member States under the auspices of the EU Commission and the EU Parliament formed the European Blockchain Partnership which develops a pan-European infrastructure for cross border blockchain services of public authorities. This "European Blockchain Services Infrastructure" is expected to go live at the end of 2019.