Coalition Launches to Promote Blockchain in the Netherlands

A blockchain consortium in the Netherlands has published a new roadmap.

First revealed on 20th March, the so-called National Blockchain Coalition was established by the Ministry of Economic Affairs' information technology team.

Overall, the initiative aims to unite more than 20 public and private organizations including the government agencies, universities and private companies from financial, logistics and energy sectors, with the goal of turning the country into a leader on blockchain tech.

Major supporters include ABN Amro, ING and Nationale-Nederlanden, one of the region's largest insurance companies.

In statements, Minister of Economic Affairs Henk Kamp stressed his optimism that blockchain technology would help make digital payments and data exchange easier and safer for global users, while improving the economic outlook of the Netherlands.

Kamp said:

"By keeping the Netherlands at the forefront of the application of innovative technologies, our knowledge base remains progressive and world-class. That creates jobs and income."

The combined initial funding of the founding partners amounts to €700,000 by the end of March. Each member will invest €200,000 and €500,000 will come from available government capita.

High priorities

The statements coincided with the release of the National Blockchain Coalition's full agenda, of which identity was high on the list of the priorities.

The agenda went on to explain how the group would now need to work with leading legal entities and other objects on standardization and interoperability challenges in 2017 on this goal and others.

Overall, the coalition aims to speed up the pace of rollout of blockchain technology within the government and use more government records such as data from the National Office of Identity Data, Chamber of Commerce, and registration records from the Ministry of Security and Justice.

Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs image via Shutterstock